Mullingar park's new addition officially unveiled

Martha Sheridan

Sculptor Richie Clarke and with Cllr Peter Burke cut the ribbon on the new tree sculpture, titled The Norse and the Gael.

The tree had been condemned to be cut down and Richie was contacted by the council to carve a design on it.

Richie agreed and asked them to bring some of their ideas to him. The agreed design was based on the story of King Malachy drowning the Viking Warrior Turgesius in Lough Lene.

The carving took Richie about six weeks to complete and involved about 240-250 hours or work.

The finished design has an image of King Malachy facing towards the Annebrook House Hotel and the face of Turgesius on the opposite side.

On the top of the tree, there is a face of a wolfhound to represent Ireland, a Norse dragon to represent the Vikings, and The Morrigan, the goddess of war, as Celtic Warriors would often pray for her protection before battle.

The sculpture currently looks darker than when it was first finished as the roots are still taking up nutrients.

Richie said: “Within a year to 18 months, it will have a silvery, ghostly look.”

When asked if he was worried about the sculpture being vandalised he said: “At first a little bit but no harm has come to it. You could even see the interest when I was working on it.

“Young people would come up and ask what I was doing and when I would tell them they would go ‘oh okay, cool’ and walk on their way. I think there is a sense of ownership about it.”

Richie started sculpting as a hobby, and began more serious work on pieces in the last 10 years (he has been a carpenter for 25 years).

In the last two years he has been able to make a living from his art work and had commissions for Dublin Zoo, Belvedere House and Gardens, Tipperary, Paris, New York, London and Munich.