Munster In 30 Artworks, No 8: Sculpture of Fungie in Dingle, by Bud Bottoms
Iveragh Counihan at the bronze statue of Fungie the dolphin, a day after its unveiling in Dingle in January 2000. Picture: MacMonagle, Killarney
For the best part of forty years, up to his disappearance in October 2020, Fungie the dolphin was arguably the most famous sea creature in the world.
Fungie first showed up in Dingle, Co Kerry in 1983, following the fishing-boats in and out of the harbour. A male common bottlenose dolphin, thirteen feet in length and weighing an estimated 500lb, he was a formidable presence, but seemed happy to play with those who dared enter the water to swim with him.
Soon, people were travelling from all over the world to encounter the Dingle Dolphin, and many credit him with driving tourism to the town in a way that nothing else had done since the filming of Ryan’s Daughter in 1969.
One of those who swam with Fungie was the late American artist and environmental activist James ‘Bud’ Bottoms, best known for his Dolphins Fountain at Stearns Wharf in his home town of Santa Barbara, California. Bottoms had already made any number of monumental sculptures – many with a marine theme - all over the world when he first arrived in Dingle on holidays with his wife Carole Ann in 1990.
“Bud and I both had a great interest in marine animals,” says Carole Ann, “and particularly dolphins. So when we heard about Fungie, we wanted to go out and meet him.
“I had swum with dolphins before, in Santa Barbara and Hawaii. But it was cold the day we went out in Dingle, and there was only one wetsuit on the boat. So I said, ‘you go ahead, Bud.’ He jumped into the water, and Fungie swam around him, and even touched him with his nose.”
On their return to Santa Barbara, the couple decided to commemorate their visit to Dingle with the gift of a dolphin sculpture. “It would partly be in Fungie’s honour, and partly to remind people that he was still a wild creature, and should be respected.”
The Bottomses returned to Dingle on a number of holidays thereafter, and Bud swam with Fungie again in 1997, but it took some years to bring the sculpture project to fruition. “Bud talked to his foundry, and they agreed to donate their services, using the lost wax process to cast the sculpture in bronze."
This involves the pouring of molten metal into a mould that has been created from a wax model. Once the mould is made, the wax is then melted and drains away.
"Then there was a man from Texas who had swum with Fungie," says Carole Anne. "He had a shipping company, and when he heard what we were doing, he donated the shipping costs. But it was very late in 1999 when the Fungie sculpture finally arrived in Dingle.”
The Bottomses flew over at the same time. “We all went out to celebrate on New Year’s Eve, and took the next day off to recover. And then the sculpture was unveiled on the 2nd of January, as part of the Millennium celebrations.”
“That was a great event,” says John Moriarty of Lord Baker’s Restaurant in Dingle, who was instrumental in finding a site for the sculpture, outside the Tourist Information office on the marina. “The whole town turned out for the occasion.”
Senator Tom Fitzgerald, chairman of Dingle Harbour commissioners, performed the unveiling, and spoke of how “no trip to Dingle is now complete without seeing Fungie. He has brought in hundreds of thousands of visitors.”
Bud Bottoms described Fungie as “the friendliest and most interactive dolphin in the world”, but warned that “we need to wake up about the environment and nature.”
Bottoms passed away, aged 90, in 2018. He was survived by Carole Ann and his sons, the Hollywood actors Timothy, Joseph and Ben Bottoms.
“Bud was a lovely man,” says Moriarty. “He’d stay in my sister’s when he was here on holidays, and he’d come up to my place for dinner. He was very popular in the area. I often met him out in Santa Barbara. Dingle is twinned with Santa Barbara, and I was out there five times as President of Dingle Chamber of Commerce. Bud would always come along to our functions.”
Fungie vanished from Dingle harbour just two years after the death of the artist who had immortalised the dolphin. “Everyone knew it couldn’t last forever,” says Moriarty, “and the day would come that there’d no Fungie in the harbour. They were able to diversify; a lot of the same boats would do trips out to the Skelligs these times. I walk out to the lighthouse every day, and the boats are always on their way in or out; they’re as busy as ever.
“And the Fungie sculpture will always be there. I see the children climbing up on it every day, and people always want to be photographed with it.”
Carole Ann Bottoms has not been back to Dingle since the unveiling. “But now I’m feeling like I should come over again. It’s wonderful to think that people are still enjoying Bud’s sculpture, and I hope they read the plaque on it. It reads: ‘All Earth’s creatures are connected in the great web of creation. Let us be caretakers.’”
Further information: budbottoms.com; dingle-peninsula.ie
