Sculpture offer to Kilcullen
Kilcullen has been offered a sculpture commissioned to mark the completion of the second local stage of the M9 Kilcullen to Carlow motorway, writes Brian Byrne.
The proposed location is the Valley Park, where it will be visible to traffic and pedestrians using the bridge, and from the Market Square. Kildare County Council's Arts Officer Lucina Russell says the site is also appropriate as it is being viewed from what was originally the main road south before Kilcullen was bypassed.
The sculpture is 4.7 metres high and will be set on a concrete and stonework plinth in a recessed area at the back of the wide section currently occupied by the vertical stone and pond, and the refurbished 'spout'.
Kildare County Council investigated a number of locations in the area before suggesting the Valley Park, in part because it offers a suitable backdrop to the scale of the piece.
It will be illuminated, and could become another focal point in the town, adding to the tally of public art pieces which already include the Dun Ailinne 'spear' monument by Noel Scullion, and the St Brigid's Well sculpture created by the late Fr Henry Flanagan of Newbridge College.
While the proposal was broadly welcomed at a recent meeting of Kilcullen Community Action, which currently maintains the Valley Park as part of its Tidy Towns programme, it is not without its objectors.
"It's too modern for the Valley, in my opinion," says Jim Collins, one of the community-owned park's trustees and the man originally responsible for the development of the Valley in the 1970s. He was known for decades as 'Mr Valley' because of his fundraising efforts on behalf of the park and his very hands-on approach to getting the facility to fruition. He has made alternative suggestions, which include the parking space beside the bank, and somewhere along the Cross & Passion land on the southern approach to Kilcullen.
If agreement can be achieved with the community on the location, the piece could be in place in four months.
Eamonn O’Doherty is best known for his large-scale public sculptures. More than 30 in Ireland, Britain and the US include the ‘Tree of Gold’ in Central Bank Plaza in Dublin, the quincentennial sculpture 'Hookers' in Eyre Square Galway and the ‘The Great Hunger Memorial’ in Westchester, New York.
Born in Derry, O’Doherty also produced a seminal 'Emigrants' piece for his home city, a major port of departure for Irish families seeking a better life in America. He is also a skilled printmaker, painter and photographer. He was for many years a Senior Lecturer in Architecture in DIT and retired in 2002 to become a full-time artist.
(NOTE: In the impression above of the location in the Valley, made by the Diary, the proportions are estimated. All comments are welcome.)
