Centenary sculpture is tribute to disaster
AN LANNTAIR Arts Centre in Stornoway is to install a new sculpture to commemorate one of the most devastating peacetime tragedies in British maritime history.
The new sculpture will sit at Stornoway Harbour, overlooking the site of where HMY Iolaire foundered on the Beasts of Holm in the early hours of New Year’s Day 1919, with the loss of 201 lives.
Most of the victims of the disaster were returning servicemen, with 179 on their way home to the Isle of Lewis.
Professor Norman Drummond CBE FRSE, chairman of the Scottish Commemorations Panel, explained: ‘Since the start of the commemorations for the centenary of the First World War in 2014, WW100 Scotland and the Scottish Commemorations Panel have learned so many moving stories of loss and tragedy.
‘Few can be as shocking as the sinking of HMY Iolaire and the loss of so many men from Lewis and Harris on the final stretch of their journey home.
‘Theirs is a story which deserves to be remembered for generations and this latest memorial sculpture, with the names of each one of those lost, provides a strong reminder of the courageous endurance and patient forbearance felt throughout the Western Isles and Scotland and far beyond, then and since.’
Royal Scottish Academicians Will Maclean, Marian Leven and Arthur Watson have been commissioned to design the new sculpture which will depict a large coiled heaving-line.
This references the heroism of John Finlay Macleod, who swam ashore with a rope and saved 40 of the 179 men.
It also serves as a metaphor for the isles’ connection with the sea, and the timeless dialogue between ship and shore, the past and the present.
The other bronze will be a wreath composed of maritime
insignia wall-mounted the enclosure.
The sculpture will feature two bronzes within a semi-circular stone enclosure and will bear the names of those lost and the communities they came from.
Norman A Macdonald, convener of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar and chairman of the Iolaire working group, said: ‘We are
within
working on a range of projects to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the terrible events of January 1 1919.
‘Our communities were devastated by the loss of lives that night and it is right we remember them and mark the occasion in an appropriate manner.
‘I am pleased part of the commemoration is to be the centenary sculpture commissioned by An Lanntair. It is fitting it will bear the names of those lost and the communities they came from and that the heroic efforts of John Finlay Macleod are depicted by a coiled heaving line. He was a hero that night. In truth, they were all heroes.’
Scheduled to be unveiled and dedicated on the morning of the centenary of the disaster, the project has been in development for almost two years.
Roddy Murray, head of visual arts at An Lanntair Arts Centre, which commissioned the sculpture, said: ‘We went through an extensive consultation process for this significant memorial on this most sensitive of subjects. It commemorates a catastrophe that has resonated through the generations. For decades, it was too painful to acknowledge or mention, far less discuss. One hundred years on, the conversation is about healing, legacy and closure.
‘Crucially and appropriately, it is being funded by donations from within the communities it affected and we are massively indebted to them for their generous contributions.’
The total cost of the sculpture is £100,000 and backing the project are the Gael Force Group and Stornoway Port Authority, whose contributions have been matched by a £35,000 award from Arts and Business Scotland’s culture and business fund. Other major donors are Urras Oighreachd Ghabhsainn, Horshader Community Trust, Point and Sandwick Trust and Tolsta Community Development.
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar has also been a key partner and supporter.