Today, 10 July, marks the eightieth anniversary of the death of Albert Power (1881–1945), the Dublin sculptor best known for the statue of Pádraic Ó Conaire. He also created several notable works across Galway, including the statue of Christ the King in the heart of Gort and the three altars in the chapel at Garbally College, Ballinasloe.
Born at Barrack Steet (now Benburb Street), Dublin, in November 1881, Albert Power studied at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art under sculptors John Hughes and Oliver Sheppard and painter William Orpen, winning numerous awards. In 1912, he set up his own stone-carving business, undertaking monumental and architectural work in marble, stone, and bronze. Although his carving business thrived, Power saw himself first and foremost as a fine-art sculptor and exhibited regularly at the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA). He was deeply committed to creating a distinctive Irish art and, where possible, using Irish stone.
Following Ó Conaire’s death in October 1928, a memorial committee was formed in Galway, which began fundraising for a headstone. The response was so generous that they commissioned Ireland’s foremost sculptor, Albert Power, to create a memorial monument. Using limestone from Durrow Quarry in Co Laois and working form a photograph of Ó Conaire, Power produced what became his most celebrated piece. Unveiled in Eyre Square in June 1935, the statue became Galway’s most recognisable landmark.
A decade later, on 10 July 1945, Power died in Dublin. Fittingly, it was his son, sculptor James Power (1918-2009), who later created the headstone for Pádraic Ó Conaire’s grave in Bohermore Cemetery.
In October 1983, Ó Conaire’s youngest daughter, Kathleen Eycott, visited Galway, staying in a hotel on Eyre Square. She was moved by how much like her father the statue appeared:
“If I looked out of the window, I would see the statue of Pádraic Ó Conaire. So, I told my husband, quick, come to the window, this is my dad. So, we both looked out, and this poor dad, the back of him was always like that, slightly bent because he was always writing. And it became so real to me that I felt it was him, and I wanted to go out with a coat to put over his shoulders. I was very, very moved … I said I’d like to go and wrap him up, and I felt so sorry for him out there, because he felt, to me, real again, and alone, sitting on stone, in the cold. And he had been like that sometimes, wet through, alone, homeless.”
Albert Power’s ‘Connemara Trout’ in green Connemara marble, depicting a fish battling upstream, can currently be seen in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.
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View the Pádraic Ó Conaire EXHIBITION or plan a VISIT.
