Are ye right there, Percy?... new sculpture hails genius of song
CELEBRATED Irish songwriter Percy French has been commemorated in a beautiful new sculpture installed where the Mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea.
French’s song about the Co Down mountains is one of his best-known works.
His beloved Mournes now form the picturesque backdrop for the new artwork, which has been placed in the grounds of the Slieve Donard Resort and Spa in Newcastle.
French, who was born in Co Roscommon in 1854, had a long association with the town.
The songwriter’s first wife Ettie, who died in childbirth, was a sister of Countess Annesley, whose family owned the land on the Mountains of Mourne.
Commissioned to mark the centenary of French’s death in 1920, the sculpture incorporates the lyrics to the famous song interwoven in three large etched copper panels.
The lettering was inspired by the typography that was used in the sheet music featuring the composer’s most popular songs and ballads.
The £200,000 installation is bordered by four locally-sourced granite seats dedicated to French’s second wife Helen and their three daughters Ettie, Mollie and Joan.
Radiating plaques set into the surrounding paving contain place names that played an important part in the songwriter’s life.
The memorial was unveiled yesterday by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and Percy French devotee Paul Muldoon.
Commissioned by Slieve Donard resort owners Hastings Hotels, the £200,000 installation was designed by Andrew Todd from Holywood-based Tandem
Design. Howard Hastings, managing director of Hastings Hotels, said French was a “giant spirit of the Victorian age”.
The hotelier added: “This new installation will serve as a monument to the memory of a man who blazed a trail in his own era and has left a huge cultural imprint on the country. Percy would be pleased that so many elements of his life, including his wife and his three daughters, are celebrated in Mourne granite.”
The project employed a range of materials and techniques — a mix of the contemporary and traditional, including granite etching, stone sandblasting and copper patination.
The ornate copper panels have also been protected with a natural beeswax coating designed to resist marking by seabirds.