O’Dwyer to be immortalised in bronze in Waterville

Statues of GAA personalities are something of a rarity, never mind those dedicated to people still living.

Next Saturday in Waterville, however, both of those boxes will be ticked as a statue to the most successful Gaelic football manager of all-time, Mick O’Dwyer, will be unveiled.

The former Kerry player, who managed his native county to eight All-Irelands in 12 years before enjoying spells in charge of Kildare, Laois and Wicklow, will be immortalised in bronze by sculptor Alan Hall, the statue being the end product of hard work from a dedicated committee.

For the man himself, news of the honour came as a pleasant surprise.

“To be very honest, I know very little about it,” O’Dwyer says, “a group of people came to me and said that they had decided to go ahead with this after a full meeting of the people of Waterville and I gave my blessing.

“Normally they wait until someone is dead before they do something like this so it’s nice to be recognised by your own people in such a way.”

Eugene Dennehy, a member of the committee, outlines the process gone through to get to this stage.

“In the autumn of 2010, a few of us got together and we renamed a local park in the village as Mick O’Dwyer Park and then we began to plan erecting a dedication to him.

“We believe that Dywer’s record and his commitment to the GAA are unique and we decided that a statue of him would be appropriate, especially as it’s so rare to have a statue of somebody who is still amongst us.

“A seven-man committee was put in place and we have been working actively ever since.

“The committee sought to raise funds through other sources and people were delighted to contribute to it and to be part of it.”

London-born Hall was drafted in to carry out the work, with his portfolio of local sculptures making him the natural choice.

“Alan also did the statue of Charlie Chaplin in Waterville and plenty of other things like Daniel O’Connell,” Dennehy says.

“The pose is from Dwyer’s playing days, driving forward with ball in hand, we looked at lots of different poses and settled on one from the book he did with Owen McCrohan in 1990.

“There’s an oval-shaped wall behind where the statue will be and on that there will be seven plaques made from Valentia slate listing his achievements, though not all of them because if you did that the wall would go from here to Cork!”

The ceremony to unveil the statue is expected to take place in the late afternoon of June 23.

“There is an open invitation to everybody,” Dennehy says, “but we will have some special guests as well.

“The unveiling will be done by Minister for Arts, Heritage & Gaeltacht Affairs Jimmy Deenihan, who played under Dwyer.

The master of ceremonies on the day will be Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh.”