Sir, - I am prompted to write by the photograph (February 13th) of the statue of Saint Patrick by Ms Hennessy. It is not an attractive representation of the first colossus of the Irish historical era, nor an accurate one. Comment on the aesthetics of her work can only be subjective, though I will say that the figure looks more like an ancient Egyptian oarsman than a fifth century ecclesiastic and whatever else about him, his face lacks all interest or vigour. He does not have the look of a man about to convert a nation.
He would not have appeared in the Irish climate and among the tribal elite in such a flimsy tunic, and he certainly wasn't bald for religious reasons. I would direct you to any of the surviving representations of contemporary churchmen from the iconography of the fifth century. They are generously maned and bearded men, clothed in a well brocaded derivative of the toga.
The truncated crozier that the figure holds is unfortunately topped by the incongruous presence of a deer antler. This is to remind us, rather hamfistedly, of Patrick's escape from the High King Laoghaire, but immediately reminds me of the confused pop culture grasp of Celtic paganism, one that is a mumbo jumbo of fact and fiction owing more to Frazer's Golden Bough than serious archaeological understanding of pre Christian society.
It is appropriate that we acknowledge the pre Patrician era of paganism, but I feel Ms Hennessy is somewhat ambivalent about its demise. The Minister, not the greatest Catholic triumphalist on this island, would surely agree that the introduction of Christianity to Ireland was an milestone of unequalled significance in the development of Irish civilisation and brought us fully into the orbit of Continental European culture.
Perhaps the Minister would reconsider his department's championing of this single work, and resource an initiative to commemorate a historically real Patrick that could still sympathetically address the crossing from pagan antiquity to the Christian era. - Yours, etc.,
Ballyvaughan,
Co Clare.