Liam Mac Uistin - Garden of Remembrance - Parnell Square, Dublin, Ireland - Etched in Stone on Waymarking.com

The main inscription of the poem by Liam Mac Uistin, in Gaelic, is carved into a curved stone wall behind the Children of Lir sculpture. There is a translation into English and French on bronze plaques attached to the same wall.

The inscription on the English plaque reads:

We saw a Vision

In the darkness of despair we saw a vision. We lit the light of
hope and it was not extinguished. In the desert of discouragement
we saw a vision. We planted the tree of valour and it
blossomed.

In the winter of bondage we saw a vision. We melted the snow
of lethargy and the river of resurrection flowed from it.

We sent our vision aswim like a swan on the river. The vision
became a reality. Winter became summer. Bondage became
freedom and this we left to you as our inheritance.

O generations of freedom remember us. The generations of
the vision.

Liam Mac Uistin

The Public Art website tells us about the sculpture:

Artist Name(s): Oisín Kelly

Artwork title: The Children of Lir

Context/Background: The Children of Lir was commissioned for the Garden of Remembrance on Dublin's Parnell Square. The Garden was designed by former Dublin City Architect Daithi P. Hanly, who commissioned Oisín Kelly to make a statue to commemorate Irish freedom fighters. It was unveiled on Easter Monday 1966, the golden jubilee of the Easter Rising, by then President Eamon de Valera.  The sculpture drew criticism on the grounds that it was not fitting that a subject from pagan legend, in this case the Children of Lir, should be the basis of a public monument in a Christian country.

Description: Kelly’s work is made of copper bronze and depicts the four figures of the children (Of Lir), and four swans: according to the legend the children were transformed into swans for 300 years.

A plaque next to the statue carries the words:

“In the darkness of despair we saw a vision.
We lit the light of hope and it was not
extinguished. In the desert of discouragement
we saw a vision. We planted the tree of
valour and it blossomed. In the winter of
bondage we saw a vision. We melted the
snow of lethargy and the river of resurrection
flowed from it. We sent our vision aswim
like a swan on the river. The vision became a
reality. Winter became summer. Bondage
became freedom and this we left to you as
our inheritance. O generations of freedom
remember us. The generations of the vision.”

Biographies: Oisín Kelly (1915 - 1981) was born Austin Kelly in Dublin and worked as a teacher until he became artist in residence at the Kilkenny Design Centre in 1966. He initially attended night class at the National College of Art and studied under Henry Moore from 1948–1949.

At first Kelly made small wood carvings and early commissions were mostly for Catholic churches. He became well known after he was commissioned to do a sculpture, The Children of Lir (1964), for Parnell Square's Garden of Remembrance, which opened in 1966 on the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising. More public commissions followed, including the statue of James Larkin on Dublin's O'Connell Street and the sculpture Oisín Goes to Tir Na Nóg, at the Irish Life Mall Plaza.

Address: Garden of Remembrance Parnell Square Dublin Ireland Website: [Web Link]

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Date Logged Log User Rating   07/16/2019 Kladings visited it