Padraig O Conaire Memorial — More Funds Needed for Galway Project

The Connacht Tribune, Saturday, November 22, 1930

Soon after the death of Padraic O Conaire, some of his friends in the Gaelic League, Galway, met together to consider the project of erecting over his grave a monument that would mark his last resting place in the cemetery of his native town.

Sketch of proposed memorial to the late Padraic O'Conaire in Eyre Square Galway.

With this object in view a circular was drawn up and sent to Gaels all over Ireland. In response to this appeal about £200 was received. But in the meantime the plans of the originators had become more ambitious, and it occurred to them that the empty pedestal in Eyre Square, Galway, where once stood the statue of Lord Dunkellin, would be a splendid base for a statue, by the greatest of living Irish sculptors, of Galway's brilliant writer.

The Committee consulted Albert Power, whose work as a sculptor has carried his name all over the globe, and they found him exceptionally attracted and enthused by the possibilities a statue of Padraic O Conaire offered to the artist, and desirous of giving to Galway of his best, if the commission were entrusted to him.

He sketched out an appealing figure of Padraic, "in his habit as he lived," seated out on a block of Galway stone, and thinking out one of his delightful stories or sketches, "of the men of the West" which a distinguished critic allows "have placed him among the best short story writers of contemporary Europe".

In order to bring the project to completion the Committee require an additional £150.

A statue of Padraic O Conaire by Albert Power! The conjunction of the two names is auspicious; and the men and women of future generations passing by that figure of the Irish poet fixed forever by the magic chisel of the Irish sculptor, the while he dreams, seated on his block of Galway stone, of the "children by the Western Sea", will remember with gratitude those who helped to give such a gift to the City of Galway and the Irish nation.

The Memorial Committee propose to draw up on parchment a list of the subscribers to the memorial to be deposited in the archives of Galway so that future historians of the City by the Corrib will record the names of those to whose generosity she was indebted for this gift of art.

Thomas Concannon, Lios na Mara, Galway is treasurer of the Fund, and Liam O Buachalla, University College, Galway, secretary.