Refurb of ‘Hands of Peace’ needed

The 'Hands of Peace' sculpture, formerly located at Market Square in Cavan Town, must undergo "refurbishment" before it is placed at its new proposed location on Railway Road.

Next to the Cavan Town Mart and adjacent to McCarren's meat processing factory, an accessible pathway and seating area has been installed leading up to the plinth where the Imogen Stuart piece is to reside in future.

Erected in the early 1990s until it was moved as part of the town centre refurbishment in 2017, it was once planned to relocate the hands to the former Richmond House site at Tullacmongan, next to the junction of the R212 Dublin Road and Owen Roe Terrace.

However, the proposal was scrapped, and the new site has been formally approved by German-born artist, Mrs Stuart, who recently visited the county.

The Travertine stone monument is one of two commissioned art works placed into storage, alongside the ‘Peace for All’ sculpture by Kildare artist Derek A Fitzsimons, damaged during an audacious attempted theft in 2016.

It had been hoped that both could be reinstated by the third quarter of 2020, subject to funding and resources, but that never materialised, in large part due to the impact of the pandemic.

Councillors in the Cavan-Belturbet Municipal District were informed at their recently held area meeting that with the "civil works done", the process now moves onto the refurbishment of piece, under the guidance of Rhonda Tidy at Cavan Arts Office.

"A refurbishment has to be done before it can be erected again," senior engineer, Paul Mulligan, informed the local elected members.

Fine Gael's Madeleine Argue said that the new location for the 'Hands' sculpture was a "very good" choice and it would be become a focal point on the recently opened Urban Greenway.

Mr Mulligan agreed, noting that what was "most important" is that Mrs Stuart herself had approved the location.