Sculpture donated to international artist’s home town

Sculptor Eddie Delaney’s links with the west of Ireland were marked at the weekend when an artwork by him was presented to his native town of Crossboyne, Co Mayo.

The abstract steel globe, entitled "Integration", and the parkland in which it has been placed have been donated to the community by the late artist's family. His son, author Eamon Delaney, spoke at the weekend unveiling.

Delaney, who is best known for his Famine memorial, Wolfe Tone statue on St Stephen’s Green, and statue and memorial to Thomas Davis on College Green, Dublin, was born near Crossboyne in 1930. He studied in Dublin and worked in Munich, Bonn and Rome, having been awarded fellowships and scholarships by the West German and Italian governments.

He represented Ireland at the Paris Biennale in 1959 and 1961, and exhibited sculptures in Tokyo, Buenos Aires and Budapest. He won the Arts Council prize for sculpture (1962), its scholarship for sculpture and bronze casting (1964), and the RHA Award for Sculpture of Distinction in Bronze (1991).

Delaney died in Connemara in 2009 and was buried in Crossboyne cemetery. A large body of his work is represented in an open-air sculpture park in Carraroe, Co. Galway.