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A statue of Hollywood star Maureen O’Hara was eliminated inside 48 hours of its set up in her adopted dwelling of Glengarriff in west Cork after its sculptor requested the county council take away it on account of criticism on-line, the council has mentioned.
Cork County Council confirmed that it agreed to take away the life-size statue of O’Hara, who starred in The Quiet Man alongside John Wayne, after sculptor Don Cronin requested to have the statue taken down due to the damaging criticism it was producing.
“Cork County Council regrets that following persistent distressing damaging on-line commentary in regards to the set up, as has been reported by native and nationwide media, the artist indicated that it was his desire to take away the statue and refuse the fee,” mentioned the council in an announcement.
“The council is disturbed that inappropriate nameless on-line commentary has grow to be a prevalent and unfair means to reply to group tasks akin to this… And sincerely regrets the misery which the artist and his household have skilled on account of his participation on this mission.”
The council additionally mentioned it was aware of the impression of what it described as “the web violation of the repute of a well known, revered, gifted native artist” earlier than defending Mr Cronin’s work which was put in in late April within the coronary heart of the favored vacationer village.
In line with the council’s spokeswoman, it was glad that Mr Cronin’s bronze sculpture was “ illustration of a youthful Maureen O’Hara, had inventive benefit and was acceptable for set up in a public place”.
She mentioned the concept for the statue happened because of a request from Glengarriff Tourism and Improvement Affiliation that the council apply for funding beneath the city and village renewal scheme for a life-size bronze artwork set up to commemorate O’Hara.
The group posted on its Go to Glengarriff web page: “the statue was eliminated in the present day. We don’t have any additional data at this level, however we are going to let about how our beloved Maureen goes to be remembered within the village in the long run.”
Feedback
In line with the Irish Mirror, greater than 1,000 folks posted feedback in regards to the statue – which was commissioned by Cork County Council at a value of €33,000 – with most of the commentators criticising the statue for the style wherein it represented O’Hara.
One individual referred to as it “an insult to the folks of Glengarriff” and one other referred to as for it to be melted down and for the method to start out once more because the statue does her a “disservice”, whereas a 3rd instructed a bench with a plaque can be a extra acceptable approach to bear in mind O’Hara within the village.
A local of Ranelagh in Dublin, O’Hara skilled on the Abbey Theatre earlier than shifting to Hollywood in 1939 when she starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s Jamaica Inn with Charles Laughton, reverse whom she additionally performed Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame which earned her a contract with RKO Photos.
She was to have an extended profession in Hollywood, showing in How Inexperienced was My Valley, The Black Swan, The Spanish Most important and Sinbad the Sailor in addition to the Christmas basic, Miracle on thirty fourth Avenue and Rio Grande, reverse John Wayne.
But it surely was reverse Wayne in John Ford’s romantic comedy drama The Quiet Man, shot in Cong, Co Mayo in 1952, that almost all endeared her to Irish audiences together with her efficiency because the feisty red-haired Mary Kate Danaher who proves greater than a match for Wayne’s Sean Thornton.
O’Hara started holidaying in Glengarriff and started spending extra time there following the demise of her third husband, aviation pioneer Charles F Blair, in a aircraft crash in 1978 and in 1984 she established a golf match within the west Cork village in his reminiscence .
She moved completely to Glengarriff in 2005 however in 2012 she moved again to the US to reside together with her grandson, and he or she died in her sleep at her dwelling in Boise, Idaho on October twenty fourth, 2015, from pure causes on the age of 95.
The damaging response to Mr Cronin’s statue of O’Hara comes after the sculptor obtained a optimistic response to a number of public commissions from Cork County Council together with one in all a bull in Macroom.
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