This is a direct Cut and Paste link to the Galway Independent who are reporting on the absence of the Padraic O Conaire statue from the hugely expensive Eyre Square Refurbishment.

Galway Independent, Wednesday, 05 January 2011. by Lorraine Hanlon

“Those hoping to see Pádraic Ó Conaire returned to his natural home in Eyre  Square any time soon could be left waiting.

Galway City Council has yet to allocate funds to build a replica of the famous Pádraic Ó Conaire statue , seven years after it was moved from its position in Eyre Square.

The statue of the author of ‘M’asal Beag Dubh’ (My Little Black Donkey) stood in the centre of the city for almost 70 years before being beheaded by vandals in 1999. The landmark was then moved from Eyre Square in 2004 and eventually relocated to Galway City Museum at the Spanish Arch for safekeeping.”

Maybe the council should see how it is done in Dublin, so I am adding in here an image of another piece of public art that is mostly beloved of Dubliners. The Kavanagh statue is in situ, which is mostly what accessible public art is about and how (indeed) it is conceived by the sculptor.

So Tired of waiting, report by Lorraine Hanlon at the Galway Independent

Thanks to Fred Johnson at the Western Writer’s Centre, Ionad Scríbhneoiri Chaitlín Maude.