"This is St. Patrick," says stained-glass artist Jason O'Gorman, gesturing proudly to the religious figure in robes and crown holding a scepter. "It's the man himself."

Moments earlier the 7-foot-tall, nearly restored stained-glass window was leaning against a wall, its beauty hidden under a garage roof in the Los Gatos hills. But as the sun's light streams through its colorful panes of glass, the full beauty of the work of art has become apparent.

The sun's rays, however, play only a small part in the total story of the window's transformation. Not too long ago, the window was hidden away in storage, in a dilapidated, dirty condition that belied its artistry and craftsmanship. Only through a bit of luck­and the efforts of O'Gorman, his friend, Keith Brophy, and Keith's sister, Joanne Brophy­ has the window once more come to light.

Now a resident of Willow Glen, 26-year-old Joanne Brophy is a native of Ireland. Three years ago, she packed her bags and followed her brother, Keith, and longtime friend O'Gorman to the United States, where, since 1999, they've been running Eire Stained Glass, a small business based in Los Gatos that specializes in the repair and restoration of stained-glass windows.

"I came because they said they needed my help," Joanne says, explaining that the two men said they were in need of her talent as an artist.

Since she arrived in the United States, she's been cleaning up sketches, providing precise measurements for design layouts, designing some of her own work and cleaning the glass.

"Sometimes it can get like a little slave factory in here," she says.

For the past year, the three of them have been working on the St. Patrick window as part of a major project for a client, Myles O'Reilly, who will be installing it in the O'Reilly's Holy Grail, an Irish restaurant in San Francisco that is scheduled to open in late March.

With the project nearing completion, the team of artists will have created a number of stained-glass wall lamps and a handful of windows from scratch. But more importantly, they'll have restored more than a half-dozen windows of historical significance.

It was the chance of a lifetime, they say. Seven of the windows are actually made by a man whose work they fortuitously studied as teenagers--Harry Clarke, whom some regard as one of the greatest stained-glass artists in the history of Ireland. And they just happened to come across his works of art by accident.

Finding Clarke

It all started about a year ago, when Keith and O'Gorman learned of O'Reilly's plans to open the San Francisco restaurant and bar.

In Ireland, most of the pubs and bars are decorated with stained-glass windows. So to bring an authentic old-country feel to his restaurant, O'Reilly decided he'd need to have some high-quality stained-glass windows installed.

The problem was finding good ones. O'Reilly knew a man named Bernard Kavanagh, who knew Keith and O'Gorman and of their expertise in stained-glass windows.

Keith and O'Gorman have been working with stained glass for most of their adult lives. Now 31 years old, the two men were 16-year-old high school students when a stained-glass artist named Seamus Malone of Tullamore, County Offaly, Ireland, came to visit their school.

Malone asked if there was anyone there interested in becoming his apprentice. Teachers nominated the two boys--Keith for his skills in mechanical drawing and O'Gorman for his artistic abilities. When asked if they were interested, the boys said they thought it would be a great opportunity.

They began a four-year apprenticeship with Malone, learning how to cut and grind glass, seal windows and work with lead framing in the traditional Irish stained-glass fashion. While the two young men were apprentices, they traveled to many churches, colleges and pubs around Ireland.

By the time they had completed their studies, O'Gorman says, they had gone to almost every church in Ireland, working on or studying the windows.

In their travels, they came across many of Clarke's works. Some of them hung in the chapel at Belcamp College in Ireland, where O'Reilly went to school. In fact, O'Gorman says, "we reckon some of these windows here came from Belcamp, too."

After racking up years of experience working all over Ireland, the two of them came to the United States. Keith came first, settling in Campbell about nine years ago. He didn't originally come to do stained-glass windows, exploring other careers options. It was only when O'Gorman--who had continued the craft in Ireland--came three years later to join him that they decided to give their trade a go in the United States, establishing Eire Stained Glass in Campbell. Joanne Brophy came in 2002.

O'Gorman and the company have since moved to Los Gatos. Keith, however, kept his residence in Campbell.

Over time the business grew through word of mouth. So when restaurateur O'Reilly asked Kavanagh if he knew anyone who could help him find quality stained glass, Kavanagh introduced him to Keith and O'Gorman.

Hidden in Napa

Soon after Keith and O'Gorman started their search, they found an antiques dealer in Napa who said he had some windows in storage that might interest them. The two men made their way to the wine country and began inspecting the merchandise.

O'Gorman says that the first thing he noticed was that the windows were falling apart.

"The lead [framing] was decayed," he says. "It was almost powdered. And the windows were dusty and grimy."

The condition of the windows, however, could not disguise the fact that the pieces were quite old, definitely European in origin and of very high quality. So despite their condition, Keith and O'Gorman told O'Reilly they had found the perfect windows for his needs.

They also advised O'Reilly that restoring the windows to their original quality would be expensive, but worth the trouble.

Each of the pieces of glass in even the most intricate stained-glass window designs would need to be taken out. They would have to be cleaned delicately and meticulously. The old frame would have to be discarded and another, completely new lead frame would need to be fashioned to fit the size of the windows in the San Francisco restaurant.

Once all of this was complete, they would have to re-assemble the window like a jigsaw puzzle, laminate and weatherproof it and ensure that everything was exactly like the original.

"If just one piece broke," Keith says, "it would have been a disaster."

Although O'Reilly paid a tidy sum, O'Gorman says, they would learn soon enough that the businessman actually purchased a number of lost relics. After Keith and O'Gorman packed the items and shipped them to their workshop in Los Gatos, the two men realized just what they had stumbled upon.

"We found out what it was after cleaning the very first section of the very first window that we took apart," Keith says. "Right there on the bottom right-hand corner, it said 'J. Clarke Studios, Dublin, Ireland.'"

The men were quite familiar with the address. It was the location of Joshua Clarke's studio, where his son Harry Clarke worked during the early 20th century.

When O'Gorman called O'Reilly, he excitedly exclaimed that O'Reilly was the owner of a number of masterpieces.

Harry Clarke, who was active in the early 20th century, was known as a book illustrator and master artist in stained-glass windows. Considered a leading Irish symbolist, he served as a major figure in the Irish Arts and Crafts movement. His contemporaries included novelist James Joyce, dramatist George Bernard Shaw and poet William Butler Yeats.

Even in such illustrious company, the poet and author "AE" George Russell, a central figure in the Irish literary scene of the period, once described Clarke as "the strangest genius of his time."

Clarke died in 1931 at the age of 41, but not before making a series of award-winning windows.

He only made an estimated 130 stained-glass windows, and suddenly the trio found themselves restoring seven of his pieces. From the outset the men knew it would be a major undertaking, but they saw it as the most important work of their careers.

According to Gordon Ponsford, senior conservator for an Altanta-based conservation and restoration group, after seeing the photographs emailed from the Willow Glen Resident, at the low end they would be valued between $20,000 to $25,000. But at the high end there is no telling what they cold be worth. However, the stained glass would need to be authenticated first.

Joanne puts it into perspective. A talented artist, she nonetheless admits that she has had no formal training in stained-glass window-making. And as such, she says she hasn't played a big part in the O'Reilly's Holy Grail project. Yet she understands the significance of the find.

"I haven't touched any of them," she says. "I guess I'm not allowed."

O'Gorman, however, disagrees. He says they needed her to do the cleaning of the pieces, which in many ways is "the most valuable part" of the restoration process.

"Most of the work is in the cleaning," he says. "The care and the application of all the chemicals that go into cleaning the glass is very time consuming."

Even so, all of them are proud to be taking part in the restoration of importance not only to the world of art, but to their Irish culture.

Now, with the O'Reilly's Holy Grail restaurant set to open in San Francisco and St. Patrick's Day a day away, the men begin to wax philosophical about what they have become part of.

"I'm sure the Irish Historical Society will be delighted to know what we've found," O'Gorman says. "And now we're restoring the windows to their full beauty. Once we're done, they'll be on show for at least another hundred years."

Keith sees it even more simply. "We're two Irish guys working on windows owned by an Irish man, which were made by one of Ireland's great artists," he says. "This just makes me feel great."

For more information on Eire Stained Glass, call 408.426.0138.