Cork In 50 Artworks, No 35: Turlough Cowman’s Millennium Sundial, at Dursey Sound

The Last Light ceremony at Dursey Sound on December 31, 1999, was billed as the last sunset of the millennium in western Europe. Turlough Cowman's creation was an integral part of the event

Turlough Cownan and Pat O’Neill aligning the Millennium Sundial at Dursey Sound in West Cork in 1999. Picture: Niall Duffy

At 4.16pm on December 31, 1999, President Mary McAleese lit a candle at Aras an Uachtaráin to coincide with the last sunset of the 20th century. The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, then lit a number of candles in Merrion Square in Dublin, representing the gardaí, nurses and the fire services. And so it went; over the next twenty-five minutes, as the light drained from the sky, candles were lit all across the country to mark the end of the millennium.

The very last Millennium Candle was lit at 4.41pm by the late Minister for Agriculture, Joe Walsh, at the Dursey Sound, at the tip of the Beara peninsula in West Cork. Piper Brendan Ring performed a series of slow airs, and the large crowd present clapped and cheered, as the sun disappeared in a riot of colour into the sea off Dursey Head. The Castletownbere lifeboat, idling in the Sound, fired off flares, and two huge bonfires were lit on Dursey Island.