Corkonians sizing up new Collins statue

The public’s reaction to the newly installed statue of Michael Collins on the Grand Parade in Cork city centre has been ‘overwhelmingly positive’, the councillor, whose motion kickstarted the campaign which culminated last month with the work’s unveiling by Rebel sporting legends, Ronan O’Gara, Jimmy Barry Murphy and Rena Buckley, has declared.

Cllr Shane O’Callaghan told The Echo that statue of the iconic leader of the IRA during the War of Independence later to be assassinated at Béal na Blath during the Civil War was drawing visitors from all over. “People want to be photographed with Michael Collins,” he said.

The reaction has been 95% positive even in the cesspool of social media, Cllr O’Callaghan added.

At the same time there have been stray remarks about the scale and dimension of the statue which have prompted some comment.

In a letter published in The Irish Examiner on Tuesday, Robert O’Sullivan of Bantry, one of Ireland’s prolific letter writers to newspapers, wrote: “For one who was called the ‘Big Fellow’, the new Michael Collins sculpture in Cork appears to show he was a bit short in the legs.” Speaking to The Echo, sculptor Kevin Holland, who is the artist responsible for the statue of Michael Collins in his hometown of Clonakilty, said the Michael Collins on the Grand Parade was actually larger than he was in real life and said there had been up to five years of consideration and planning beforehand.

“It’s actually a long process, I have to start off with models and worked away and talked to the committee that’s involved and take into account all the physical factors of the location, the material that we have to base it on and the thoughts of everybody that’s involved.

“That’s all part of the public art process, you’re not just working in a vacuum, not pleasing yourself, you take everyone’s opinion into account and all of the practical elements as well.” The fact that he was working on a statue of Michael Collins, Kevin knew there was a lot of material on which to base his work.

“As far as I’m concerned you couldn’t ask for a better subject in that context because in his short life, he had worn so many hats and accomplished so much, there’s almost too much material to deal with.” 

Between the time a piece of public art is first proposed and when it is unveiled, there’s a lot that can happen to delay or derail entirely the project.

“A lot of proposed project do not come into fruition at all – there are so many aspects involved in it – funding, planning permission, the public appetite for it, the people in the locality, the City Council, everything has to be taken into consideration.

“There are many areas for it to fall down and it often does.

“In this case the ball did keep rolling and gained momentum, and got the right backing politically, a fantastic location was found for it, there was a very enthusiastic response to the fundraising effort and, then, a fantastic committee to drive it – the snowball kept getting bigger as it rolled along and it came to fruition.” The statue’s overall height would be about 6’4” – that’s from the bottom of his heel to the top of his hat. “In reality Michael Collins himself would have been about 5’10” – the name of the Big Fellow that he had wasn’t because he was physically bigger than other people, it was more his character was bigger than other people.

“It’s generally a rule in the realm of public art, when you’re representing someone, you’re better to do it slightly larger than life, anyway, because if you do someone exactly lifesize, in the cold dead bronze, it looks small and diminutive – if you’re doing a representation of somebody, you’d give it an extra 10-15% in size.” Kevin said that he had put a lot of thought into the statue and taken advice from many, including Tomás Tuipéar, who does a lot of signwriting on Cork’s shopfronts, streetscapes and art installations.

“It was decided to place it on the pavement for a number of reasons, first of all it looked much on the pavement than it would on the pedestal and, secondly, it was part of the overall impression we wanted to give of the statue of Michael Collins being a man amongst the people down on ground level.

“It’s sort of demonstrative of the way he operated himself, being amongst the people, disappearing into the people, with th contrivance of the people basically.” This being a piece of public art, Kevin understands it will provoke a response. “You aim to please everyone but it will always be impossible to please everybody but, for me, it’s been very positive to get the feedback and everytime I’ve passed it since, people have been queuing up to have their photograph taken with this and for me, that’s number 1.” As for those who have quibbles about the likeness between the statue and the Big Fellow in real life, Kevin has this to say.

“It’s not a facsimile, it’s not a dead stamp in every single detail – what you’re looking for is what looks right, that’s what I would always be striving for.

“As regards the physical proportions, an awful lot of work has gone into that, it’s not haphazard, it’s not thrown together,” he said, acknowledging that there would always be a race for someone to come up with a witty comment about a new work of public art.

“In reality someone would have to go down and say, is that leg in proportion to the rest of the body and it would be quite easy if that person actually went down and saw the statue and put their own leg up against it and measured from the heel to the knee, say, and from the knee to the hip, they would find it is actually in proportion.” He acknowledged that it was a responsibility and that there was a risk associated with installing public art but stressed that he, along with most artists who do such work, aim to please as many as possible while they know they can’t please everybody.

His hope is now, that as with his other pieces of public art, people will continue to enjoy Michael Collins on the Grand Parade for many years to come.