In 1926, the government decided to produce a coinage for the new Free State. A committee, chaired by the poet W.B. Yeats, was set up to suggest suitable designs. The harp, now uncrowned, was chosen for the obverse. A novel approach was taken to the reverse designs. It was decided that the motifs to be portrayed should have an association, not with history or politics, but with the fauna of the Irish countryside.
Read MoreInformation on Irish graveyard and churchyard sculpture has tended to be localized. Ada Longfield’s pioneering work in the field in the 1940s and 1950s concentrated mainly on counties Wicklow and Wexford, although significant gravestone art was noted by her in other areas.
Read MoreSince the term ‘church monument’ covers a number of different sorts of memorial, it may be desirable at the outset to establish what the most common varieties are. Most, though not all, may be found in Ireland. The commonest are those raised by family members to deceased relatives.
Read MoreThe obsession and desire for continuity with the Celtic past became manifest in some aspects of Irish sculpture in the second half of the nineteenth century. The establishment of the Act of Union at the beginning of the century and the energetic oppositional nationalism that ensued […]
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