A vast concrete wall of shirts is to be erected in New Ross, Co Wexford, as a permanent reminder of the bloody battle for the town in 1798, which cost up to 3,000 lives.
The project, devised by a Belfast artist, Philip Napier, has won an £80,000 open competition held by New Ross Urban District Council to decide on a suitable commemorative work.
Out of 12 shortlisted proposals, the one selected by a jury of councillors, historians and artists was Napier's concept, entitled Trace, which aims to register the human consequences of the battle of New Ross and the importance of the 1798 ideal.
Using rubber mouldings taken from real shirts, the artist will create a large-scale moulded concrete wall, six metres high by 40 metres long, depicting hundreds of shirts, an image derived from contemporary accounts of the revolutionaries setting out for battle in their Sunday best.
The UDC had set out to find an artist to undertake a significant work as part of this year's commemorations of the Battle of New Ross, regarded by many historians as the critical encounter in the entire 1798 campaign in Co Wexford.
The rebel attack on the garrisoned town failed. Had it been successful, the Wexford rebels might have been able to rally United Irishmen in western counties to their cause.
Philip Napier (33) was born in Belfast and studied at Falmouth School of Art and the University of Ulster. He lives and works in Belfast and Dublin.