Munster In 30 Artworks, No 5: Dockers, Limerick, by Mike Duhan
Mike Duhan's Dockers sculpture in Limerick.
Mike Duhan, Dockers Mike Duhan was an obvious choice of artist when Limerick City Council decided to commission a sculpture to commemorate the dockers who’d laboured for years unloading cargo boats on the River Shannon. After all, he’d grown up on Wolfe Tone St, just five minutes from Spokane Walk on Howley’s Quay, where the sculpture was to be situated; his father had been a seaman; and he’d studied at Limerick City School of Art.
As Duhan describes it, however, his Dockers sculpture had a difficult gestation. “There was an open call for submissions,” he explains. “I was naturally interested, given my connections to the place. When I read the brief for the commission, the first image that came to mind was a strong, simple visual; Vincent Van Gogh’s painting, The Potato Eaters.”
Duhan’s proposal was for four figures in bronze, “strong bruisers to celebrate the ordinary men of Limerick. Two would be carrying a plank, another would be carrying a bag of coal, and the fourth would be pushing a barrow. The commissioners came back and asked for more drawings and maquettes, and then I was given the job. I don’t think I was chosen based on the fact that I was from Limerick, I think they just liked my idea.”
The original budget was for €120,000. “But then there were problems with the funding, and the whole thing was delayed. When I realised the budget was the issue, I went back and proposed I do two figures, instead of four, for half the price. And they agreed to that.”
The two figures he proposed to keep were those carrying a plank. “I built the figures out of clay, and then I made the moulds and brought them down to the foundry on the back of my bike. Leo Higgins oversaw the casting in bronze. The process is very labour-intensive, and very expensive, so I hardly saw any money out of the commission. It was important to me that there would be a few shovels and a bollard in the finished piece, so I made those at my own expense, as my contribution to the project.”
Both of the figures in the sculpture wear belts, and Duhan inscribed his father’s name – John Duhan – on one. “The big leather belts were very important to the dockers. They’d often work ten to twelve hours a day, unloading the boats, and the belts helped save their backs from harm. It was brutal work. My father tried it once, but he only lasted half a day. He went away to sea after that; even that was an easier life, he reckoned.”
Technology has long since replaced the need for human labour on the docks, with most of the unloading of cargo ships being done by cranes. But there were many former dockers among the hundreds that gathered for the unveiling of the sculpture by the Mayor of Limerick Kevin Keily on 18th June 2010.
Duhan admits to having missed the occasion. “There was a mix-up with a car,” he says. “But my brother Johnny was there to represent me. Johnny’s a songwriter; he performed that song he wrote for Christy Moore, The Voyage, and I think everyone was very happy with that. I finally made it down in time for the after-party.”
The reaction to the sculpture has been overwhelmingly positive. “I’m told it’s the most photographed object in Limerick city,” says Duhan. “But an artist is never really finished with his work. I’d still love to go down with an angle grinder and smooth out some edges I’m not happy with.”
Aside from the Dockers sculpture, most of Duhan’s work as an artist revolves around the naked human figure. He remembers his time at Limerick City School of Art with fondness, he says, but he is mostly self-taught, acquiring his skills as and when needed to fulfil his vision.
From 1982, he taught at the National College of Art and Design, but he retired six years ago, when he turned sixty. “I used to finish work at the college around 4.30pm, then I’d go to my studio in Temple Bar and work away until midnight, unless I caught a pint on the way home. Now I have my own studio at home, and I can work away all day if I want.”
Mike Duhan’s work will be shown at the Kildare Gallery’s Sculpture Garden at this year’s Bloom Garden Show at the Phoenix Park, Dublin, opening June 2. Further information: thekildaregallery.ie
