THE CLADDAGH ICON - PHOTOGRAPHED AUGUST 2016

To me this looks like a very large monstrance, ostensorium (or an ostensory) … the vessel used in Roman Catholic, Old Catholic and Anglican churches for the more convenient exhibition of some object of piety, such as the consecrated Eucharistic host during Eucharistic adoration or Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. It is also used as reliquary monstrance for the public display of relics of some saints.

 Some accounts describe this metal sculpture by John Coll as depicting a seagull, a ship and the sun. The sun may be correct but it is definitely not a seagull [my best guess is that it is a cormorant] and I am not sure that a Galway Hooker is classified as a ship.

John Coll, originally from Taylor’s Hill Galway and now living in Dublin. After an initial career as a marine biologist John Coll turned to his passion for making sculpture fulltime 30 years ago. Since then he has become one of the best known figurative sculptors with many public works such as the monument to Patrick Kavanagh on the Grand Canal at Baggot Street, Dublin and his celebration in bronze of Brendan Behan on the Royal Canal in Drumcrondra, Dublin. Other large-scale works include a life-size portrait of the racehorse "Bobbyjo" and a 4-meter monument to Countess Markievicz at Rathcormac, Co Sligo. His most recent commission is a 4.5-meter sculpture of the Galway footballer legend Enda Colleran for his hometown of Moylough, Co Galway.

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• PUBLIC ART IN GALWAY  
• WILDE AND VILDE - PUBLICART  
• THE BIG YELLOW THING - UNIVERSITY CAMPUS 
• TWIN SPIRES - UNIVERSITY CAMPUS

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