Two Ó Conaire statues to be in place by end of Summer

The statues, the original and a bronze replica, have been in the works at Cast Foundry in Dublin since September.

The replica will be located in Eyre Square, but city officials haven’t determined an exact location at this time.  Since the replica is quite heavy due to the bronze it needs to be placed on a reliable base.

The other issue with location is making sure it’s away from any possible vandalism, but at the same time is in a spot where it’s accessible to everyone.

“It’s taking longer than we expected because we want to do it right. Once it’s put there we don’t want to move it,” said Gary McMahon, Acting Senior Executive Officer in Arts, Culture & Communications in Galway City Council.

“It’s an iconic image of Galway and we expect and we know that visitors and locals will treat it with respect.”

The original stone statue of Shean Phádraic will be housed in the Galway City Museum, where it was safely placed for a number of years.

In the past, the statue was hugely popular with tourists for photographs and Mr McMahon pointed out they wanted today’s visitors to have the opportunity to pose with the statue, too.

City officials hoped the statues would be ready for mid-June for the Remembering Eamonn Ceannt event, but Mr McMahon said that hadn’t proved possible.

Officials and craftsmen have been working to make the replica look as identical to the original piece as they possibly can.

The original statue, which was designed by Albert Power, has been moved quite a few times since its creation.

In 2004, it was moved out of Eyre Square to City Hall during the square’s enhancement scheme.  Then two years later it was relocated to the museum.

Surgery to the original piece includes work on the nose, fixing the brim of the hat and some cracks along the neck which appeared after an earlier repair when the statue was vandalized.

Back in 1999, four youths from Northern Ireland drunkenly kicked off the head of the statue causing about IR£11,000 (around €14,000) in damages.

They were charged with criminal damage after the head was found in a bag and were fined IR£1,000 and ordered to pay IR£2,000 to the city of Galway.

At that time, the judge compared the theft of the head to the removal of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre.

The statue was unveiled in 1935 by Eamon de Valera and was placed between the Browne Doorway and Richardson’s Pub.

Ó Conaire is regarded as one of the advanced writers in the Irish language and was a contributor to the revival of Gaelic literature in the early 20th century.

Cllr Padraic Conneely has welomed the imminent return of the statues.

“I have been told by the City Council the replica is complete. A structural groundworks assessment is being progressed to finalise a location and ensure a stable and secure platform for the statue. It is expected that this will be completed and the replica will be in situ in the coming weeks.”