John Burke: The Cork teacher behind Wilton roundabout sculpture

Despite mixed public reaction to his work, the late Crawford teacher John Burke is regarded as one of Ireland’s greatest modern sculptors, writes Colette Sheridan

John Burke at the Crawford School of Art in Cork in 1973. 

Pioneering sculptor John Burke is best known in his adopted city of Cork for his abstract steel sculpture at the Wilton roundabout. It's a piece of hard-edged public art that often perplexes people who, according to Catherine Marshall, "don't know how to perceive it".

Marshall, former head of collections and senior curator at IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art), is the curator of a retrospective exhibition of Burke's work in his native Clonmel. Taking place at South Tipperary Arts Centre (STAC) until September 19, the exhibition aims to shine a spotlight on the work of Burke who died, aged 60, from cancer, in 2006.