In medieval Dublin Castle is the largest sculpture - entirely sand - made in Ireland. How do they do it? asks Áine Flynn.

It is difficult to understand that after hours of careful sculpting, sand sculptures worldwide rarely last longer than a few weeks before demolition.

The artists accept that they only have a short time-span to appreciate their work; resources are often recycled to build another figure. This particular sculpture will be brought back to earth on Wednesday.

Situated in the upper courtyard of Dublin Castle, the sculpture is 17 ft high and 20 ft wide. The project is the brainchild of Duthain Dealbh of Fleeting Sculpture, which is a group of three Irish artists - Fergus Mulvany, Daniel Doyle and Niall Magee. They have already sculpted sand in Russia, Singapore, China, America and much of Europe.

Now they want to raise the profile of sand-sculpting in Ireland and allow people to appreciate its beauty. To date, they have completed work in Wexford, Castlebar in Mayo, at the Galway/Mayo Institute of Technology and in St Stephen's Green, Dublin.

The sculpture in Dublin Castle - like every other piece with which they have been involved - adopts a casual approach. Each artist has a vague idea of what they want to achieve at the outset, but ideas are kept open to allow for a change in design or direction at any time and maintain a degree of improvisation and creativity.

"We keep ideas as open as possible and like to remain creative," says Daniel Doyle.

The trio became interested in the art form in 1993 when Fergus Mulvany went to The Hague for a sand-sculpting event. "I had never tried it before," he says. "I had never even thought about doing it, until two invitations arrived to the college and then I thought, why not?"

His eventual enthusiasm for the art form rubbed off on his fellow DIT Mountjoy Square graduates of fine art, Doyle and Magee, who attended their first event in Russia in 1996.

The process begins with the arrival of truck-loads of sand. It needs to be a specific texture - fine grain, sharp and unwashed - to hold moisture inside and enable detail to hold. "The type of sand dictates what you are able to do and the detail that can be imported into the piece," Doyle says.

Before carving begins, time is spent compacting the sand. That process lasted almost a week in Dublin.

This event in Dublin Castle has attracted €3,000 in sponsorship from Dublin City Council, while the carvers themselves have put up a similar amount. The group hopes to bring a selection of carvers to Ireland next year for an international event, but need sponsorship.

Sand-sculpting is becoming popular internationally. In the US, Duthain Dealbh believe it has become almost too commercialised, where events attract huge sponsorship.

In San Diego, an attempt was made recently to break the world record for the longest and widest sand sculpture. Although it did not succeed, the carvers insist it came very close. They have also won a number of competitions in Canary Islands, Denmark and Russia where they have worked on ice and snow sculptures.

"The art of sand sculpture appeals to people of all ages and from all walks of life," Doyle explains. "Because of its relative speed it also becomes as much a performance as it is a finished work."

The sand sculpture is on exhibition and open free to the public in the upper courtyard of Dublin Castle until August 21st.