Art unites original Rose with her lover
Sculptor Jeanne Rynhart puts the finishing touches to a statue, to be cast in bronze and erected in Tralee, Co Kerry, to celebrate the 50th Rose of Tralee competition. MACMONAGLE, KILLARNEY
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Wednesday August 12 2009
The Rose of Tralee has been cast in bronze and permanently united with her lover -- in a way that she never was in life.
A statue by the west Cork-based sculptor Jeanne Rynhart, who created the Molly Malone monument in Dublin's Grafton Street, features cobbler's daughter Mary O'Connor, and merchant's son William Pembroke Mulchinock.
It was inspired by William's love for Mary, as told in the song 'The Rose of Tralee'.
The statue will be unveiled later this month to mark the Kerry festival's 50th anniversary.
Famous
The Rose of Tralee is the latest in a series of famous Irish women to be modelled by Jeanne Rynhart.
Other luminaries include Molly Malone in Grafton Street in Dublin and Annie Moore, the first arrival at the Ellis Island Immigration Station in New York Harbour.
The figures were modelled in the Rynhart Gallery in Ballylickey, Co Cork, and cast in bronze at the Connolly Foundry in Kilbaha, Co Clare.
- ANNE LUCEY
