Irish Examiner view: Honouring our legends can be a double-edged sword

Maureen O'Hara and John Wayne in The Quiet Man. 

Commissioning a sculpture to honour someone’s life is a positive, admirable act of remembrance. 

If done properly, such a project can enhance the environment it is set in and perpetuate the memory, achievements, and most importantly, the standards set by the subject so revered. 

However, such a well-meaning public gesture can be a double-edged sword.

If the work is less than impressive, particularly if it is a figurative representation, it can easily move from the unsatisfying to the unacceptable. 

In some cases, and there are several, the representation is so nebulous the project achieves the very opposite of what was intended.

In that situation, the character of the person so honoured is forgotten as most of those represented in this way set the highest standards for themselves — why else might they be so fondly remembered?

Efforts to commemorate Maureen O’Hara’s connections with West Cork have run into that quagmire. 

Cork County Council and Glengarriff Tourism and Development Association, have worked for several years to mark her life.

'Not a good likeness'

The first sculpture offered was rejected as “not a good likeness” and the authority accepted a refund of €26,250 from a €30,000 grant. 

A second artist was involved but, it seems, that may not end satisfactorily either. 

The authority is right to expect nothing less than O’Hara would have accepted. 

Anything below that would be more an insult than an honour and reflect very poorly on the community that might install it.