Luke Kelly has a double. Anything new in that?
IHAVE a fundamental objection to the two statues of Luke Kelly — it’s not about the statues themselves, it’s just the fact that there are two of them, and not one.
In any creative endeavour, especially one with the permanence of a statue, there should come a time when you pick one version over the other, for public consumption. Patrick Kavanagh didn’t give himself the option of putting out a more upbeat version of The Great Hunger. And James Joyce eventually had to finish Ulysses without doing an easier edition of it, in case the first one didn’t fly.
In this case, it seems that the Luke Kelly on Sheriff Street by Vera Klute was officially commissioned, and then they were offered the funds for a second Luke by the late Gerry Hunt, the bronze statue on South King Street by John Coll.
The latter is more conventional in style, which may have persuaded them to “take a mulligan”, as they say in golf when they feel the need to have a second crack at it. And in case you’re thinking that golf has no place in a piece about Luke Kelly, I should add that Luke, who was interested in all things, was interested enough in golf to actually play it now and again.
I know for certain he would play a few rounds with John Giles whenever he visited him in England.
Indeed, maybe they should have a third statue, in Mulligan’s of Poolbeg Street.
Not that Luke is not entitled to be lavishly celebrated, and if anything, I feel he is under-rated. If Sinatra was the Voice of the Century, Luke must have been up there too.
Frank Sinatra or Luke Kelly — pick one.