Cork artist inspired by uncle who was on the plane that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki
Patrick Penney with his work at MTU Crawford College of Art and Design. Picture: Joleen Cronin
Patrick Penney’s installation at the Crawford College of Art & Design’s Degree Show in June took an unusual subject; his granduncle William Penney’s involvement in the Manhattan Project and the deployment of the first atomic bombs in August 1945.
William Penney, born in 1909, was a British professor of mathematical physics at the Imperial College London when he was invited to help devise what became known as the Mulberry harbours during World War II. These were two prefabricated harbours used to facilitate the unloading of cargo during the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944.
