The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
The Sicilian stone carver who made his mark on West Kerry
“MY mission is accomplished,” says Antonio Fazio and 27 years after he first visited Dingle the well known stone carver is packing up and heading back to Sicily today (Wednesday).
A combination of circumstances has led the Sicilian who developed a trade in stone carving while living in West Kerry to migrate south. He has recently retired from his work and , with more time on his hands to fully appreciate the weather, he finds the climate in Ireland difficult. This, coupled with the lack of availability of warm houses at a reasonable price, has made it easy for him to make the final decision to return to Sicily, where accommodation is less than one third of the price of that in West Kerry, not to mention the heating bills.
His work is visible in every townland on the peninsula, on many headstones in many graveyards, and in his ‘Art in Stone’ sculptures that have found places in homes and gardens around the globe.
Tony was born in Garaci Siculo in 1951, at a time before tourism had developed and the region of Sicily operated as a subsistence economy. His parents tended land for a local landowner, there was no shop in the vicinity and everything from furniture to creels was made from plants and trees that grew in the area. The family’s food was grown by his father and his mother kept chickens. Cooking and other facilities were all carried on outside the room where the family lived.
After finishing his schooling Tony was apprenticed to a photographer in Sicily an an exhibition of his photographs at Féile na Bealtaine three years ago revealed a family life similar to that lived in West Kerry in much earlier times – apart from the absence of mist and rain.
His arrival in Dingle was accidental. While living and working in hotels in London where his brother lived he paid a visit to Ireland and was advised that he should “see the west”.
After arriving in Dingle in 1991 he got job a job tending the pizza oven in Carol’s Bistro – a restaurant then located at the head of the pier.
Informed by the fact that “artists enjoy privilege in Ireland” which would not have been the case in his native Sicily, Tony moved towards the creative industries and set himself up as a stone carver.
He established his business ‘Art in Stone’ in Cill Mhic a’ Domhnaigh and moved into what used to be Barry’s Forge at Burnham, 10 years ago. Amongst the commissions he received was one from Kerry County Council to carve the names of the townlands in stone and these can now be seen dotted around the peninsula.
Demonstrating a deep-rooted sense of place, Tony chose to work with local sandstone rather than more traditional materials such as limestone or granite. “Although it is difficult to work with, it has a great deal of variation in its texture, colour and hardness,” he says.
The familiar site of Tony at work in the old forge in Burnham will be no more, but the work of the Sicilian stone carver who made his mark on West Kerry will keep his memory alive long into the future.