{"id":382927,"date":"2026-04-05T09:11:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T09:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/382927\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T09:11:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T09:11:16","slug":"honouring-brendan-mcgloins-bundoran-life-and-sculptures-on-his-first-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/382927\/","title":{"rendered":"Honouring Brendan McGloin\u2019s Bundoran life and sculptures on his first anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the mallet strikes the chisel and the chisel strikes the stone \u2013 April 4 marks the first anniversary of one of Ireland\u2019s greatest stone-carvers, Bundoran<\/a>\u2019s own, Brendan \u201cBenny\u201d McGloin.<\/p>\n

Although one year has passed for Brendan\u2019s beloved family and friends in the Bundoran and Kinlough communities, words are still hard to mine, and sentences are still tough to quarry.<\/p>\n

However, Brendan\u2019s mighty Celtic spirit still inspires his family and friends to bravely shape the right words and to courageously sculpt the best sentences during this time of commemorating his life.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The son of Frankie and Claire McGloin, Brendan is the brother of Francis, Geraldine, Sandra, and Ciaran, the husband to Allie and father to Caelagh, Ruben, Jamie and Kyle. Named after Brendan the Navigator, the sixth-century Irish patron saint of sailors, Brendan still guides his family and friends to navigate the swell of emotions that naturally rise like the surf waves at The Peak in Bundoran.<\/p>\n

His brother Ciaran shared that Brendan \u201chad a great love of nature, the sea, music, surfing, having the craic, he adored his kids and family, always had time for the chats, always missed.\u201d Ciaran also said that Brendan was a proud native son of Bundoran and a descendant of the historic Gaelic McGloin clan, who were \u201cthe boat keepers for MacClancy who had the castle on Lough Melvin\u201d in County Leitrim.<\/p>\n

Similar to Brendan\u2019s legendary McGloin ancestors, his steady hand still keeps the boats of his family and friends safe and sound as they sail through life along the shores of Bundoran and Lough Melvin.<\/p>\n

Behind one of Ireland\u2019s greatest visionary artists is Brendan\u2019s wife, Allie, who kindly shared some personal insight into Brendan\u2019s bravery in the last years of his life. Allie said that \u201cBrendan was very brave, the more I think about it, the more I realise it to be true. He had an inner strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

She said that \u201cHe was brave through his illness, having to face his own mortality. He was so resilient in his life, regardless of the condition and the ongoing chemo, regular hospital visits and stays. All the pain he endured.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even through that pain, Allie said he always brought \u201ca smile and a joke to the day ward when he got his chemo. The nurses loved to see him coming. He brightened up their day.\u201d In Brendan\u2019s last few weeks in the Oncology Ward, Allie said: \u201cI know he was a huge comfort to other cancer patients, making them laugh even though they too were dying.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Brendan was never afraid to speak his Celtic truth through his art and life, Allie said: \u201che always said what he thought, even if it made people uncomfortable; he was direct and spoke his truth. Actually, it\u2019s something I admired and loved about him. You knew where you stood and knew what he thought.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allie shared a memory from one of Brendan\u2019s Bundoran friends, Charlie McQuillan. After Brendan passed, Charlie said on Facebook: \u201cBrendan was the bravest boy he knew in Bundoran when they were growing up and he turned into the bravest man he knew.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

While Brendan\u2019s sculptures were greatly appreciated in Bundoran over the years, Allie said he \u201calways felt he needed more recognition for his work.\u201d His brother Ciaran added that \u201cmost of the great artists don\u2019t get recognition until they pass, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brendan\u2019s family and friends hope that his first-year anniversary will mark the beginning of his beloved Bundoran community honouring his life by encouraging people to respectfully visit his Bundoran sculptures on April 4 and throughout his anniversary month.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Located in the historic heart of Bundoran, Brendan artistically told the ancient to modern seaside story of Bundoran\u2019s history through what he and Allie call his \u201cSculpture Trail.\u201d Carriage na n\u00c9an (Rock of the Birds, 2000) symbolises Bundoran\u2019s Celtic history, while Olchloch Punta (The Limestone Punt, 2002) is a Gaelic emblem for Bundoran\u2019s rich fishing heritage.<\/p>\n

His commemorative seat for the victims of The Central Hotel fire, featuring a Charlie Gracie poem carved into it, highlights the importance of remembering one of the town’s modern tragedies, which occurred in 1980 when Brendan was a young lad.<\/p>\n

Two of Brendan\u2019s sculptures, An Triur Ceann (The Triskele Heads, 2002) and the statue of M\u00edche\u00e1l \u00d3 Cl\u00e9irigh have also recently taken on new historical significance. The rediscovery of the Franciscan Louvain Papers record of \u201cBundrowes\u201d establishes that M\u00edche\u00e1l \u00d3 Cl\u00e9irigh\u2019s Annals of the Four Masters, the greatest history book of Gaelic scholarship, was created in Magheracar, Bundoran.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Brendan\u2019s visionary sculptures of \u00d3 Cl\u00e9irigh and his scribes are now a vital part of showing the Four Masters history in Bundoran.<\/p>\n

One of the best ways to honour Brendan\u2019s life on his anniversary is to explore his sculpture trail in his beloved Bundoran. Brendan\u2019s sculptures will inspire your spirit to be shaped by the Celtic art of one of Ireland\u2019s greatest stone-carvers and will also encourage your soul to be sculpted by the Celtic heart of one of Bundoran\u2019s bravest men.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the mallet strikes the chisel and the chisel strikes the stone \u2013 April 4 marks the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,134786,308,1485,93,61,60,170774,25524],"class_list":{"0":"post-382927","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-bundoran","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-donegal","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-kinlough","19":"tag-leitrim"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}