[1] Orchard Gallery established itself on a minimal budget, and McGonagle found that international artists were attracted by the concept of addressing the issues of communities in conflict.

[5] He supported the contentious decision to use the 17th century Kilmainham Hospital location, as opposed to a new purpose-built premises in the then redeveloping Dublin Docklands area.

[6] Aidan Dunne of the Irish Times notes that at Imma "over the years... the lack of a large exhibition space has on occasion been a drawback.

"[7] Hugh Linehan, arts and culture editor at The Irish Times, commented in 2021 that McGonagle "...fatefully insisted it should be located in the Royal Hospital", and that "Imma has struggled to define itself against the backdrop of a beautiful but not very well-suited exhibition space.

£100,000 is actually quite a modest sum, although it's a lot in Irish terms, so it's only right that we redistribute that wealth back into the system [...] "[10] In 1994 the gallery acquired a semi-permanent Lawrence Weiner work for £20,000.

He noted that "the Irish Museum of Modern [sic] largely ignores the contribution made by our own artists of the last 50 years and does not regularly make a cross-section of their work accessible to the public.

[20][16] Under McGonagle the Centre's building and property on Moss Street in central Dublin was sold in 2003 for more than €4.2 million, making it the richest arts organisation in Ireland at the time.

[16] After the sale, the City Arts Centre spent the next few years in a basement office and in 2007 bought a smaller building on Bachelor's Walk.

At this time the organisation had spent nearly all of its savings between operational costs, archiving, the 'Civil Arts Inquiry', redundancy packages, and the new building with its renovations.

[23] Aside from his 1983 stint at Institute of Contemporary Arts, in 1993 McGonagle sat on a subcommittee of the Cultural Relations Committee (CRC) to reinstate the Irish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

In February 2000 the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Síle de Valera, appointed Marie Donnelly, a leading socialite and charity fundraiser,[25] to chair a new board at Imma.

In November 2000 Board members were informed that lawyers for McGonagle were applying to the High Court for an injunction restraining Imma from publicly advertising the director's position.

The issue took on larger proportions as "...public perception was that [Donnelly] was somehow against community arts and in favour of international blockbuster exhibitions, that she was a wealthy socialite out to bring down a man of the people.

"[28] During this time there was public support for McGonagle and a high profile threats were made to withdraw collections and funding from the gallery should the director lose his position.

There were related student protests and a sit-in in March 2015, followed by a near unanimous SIPTU vote at an Emergency General Meeting on April 15, 2015 of 'no confidence' in the senior management:[35][36][37][38]"At an Emergency General Meeting of SIPTU members in NCAD, held on April 15, a motion was passed that stated: “Following the recent appearance of NCAD before the Public Accounts Committee and in support of the action of students, SIPTU members have expressed no confidence in the Senior Management Team of NCAD to plan for the long term fiscal and academic future of the college.

We will as requested by our members bring this to the attention of the Department of Education and the HEA.”"[38]On 11 September 2015 McGonagle announced his intention to retire as director of the National College of Art and Design at the end of the year citing "personal reasons".

London New York: Merrell Holberton Independent Curators International, in association with the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, 1999.