and distracting so I am pleased to see that the have been removed.
Edward Delaney (1930–2009) was an Irish sculptor born in Claremorris in County Mayo in 1930. His best known works include the 1967 statue of Wolfe Tone and famine memorial at the northeastern corner of St Stephen’s Green in Dublin and the statue of Thomas Davis in College Green, opposite Trinity College Dublin. These are both examples of lost-wax bronze castings, his main technique during the 1960s and early 1970s.
Though they do exhibit some of his trademark expressionism, the statues of Wolfe Tone and Thomas Davis are less abstract than was most of his work at the time; the famine memorial is more typical in this regard. However, arts writer Judith Hill points out that these statues make no attempt at an exact likeness of the figures they portray, instead, they communicate the public stature of their subjects and, indeed, the public role of memorial statues through their proportions and scale. In this way, it is argued, they mark the transition from memorial and public art.
What all Edward Delaney’s work shares is robustness, in an Irish Times review of his 2004 retrospective, arts writer Aidan Dunne described his bronzes as robust, but having an awkwardness, a tenderness about them.
From 1980 onwards, Edward Delaney concentrated on large scale environmental pieces and stainless steel works in Carraroe, County Galway. The Royal Hibernian Academy held a retrospectives of his work in 1992 and again in 2004.
FAMINE MEMORIAL GARDEN NEAR KILKENNY RAILWAY STATION
MacDonagh Junction Shopping Centre located at the top of John Street next to Kilkenny Train station is the site of the former Kilkenny Union Workhouse and of the discovery of over 970 human remains in 2005 which were undocumented.
These people date from 1845 – 1852 and represent a cross section of Kilkenny inhabitants that befell starvation and disease as a consequence of the Great Famine. As the local graveyards filled the decision was taken to bury them within the grounds of the workhouse. This burial ground was then covered over by a thick layer of soil and later used as the workhouse garden.
In 2005 the remains were discovered whilst the site was being carefully prepared for the development of the Centre and they were removed under expert supervision and brought to the National Museum of Ireland. They were examined in detail by experts from around the world and this research offered never seen before insights into the living conditions and cause of death for famine population in Ireland. This has been described as the most significant discovery in the World relating to the Irish Famine. They were returned to in 2010 and respectfully reinterred in the Kilkenny Famine Memorial Garden at MacDonagh Junction.
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