It started its life as a tiny acorn brought home by his great-granduncle from the battlefield he fought on during the First World War.<\/p>\n
Generations later, Skibbereen artist Murrough O\u2019Donovan has immortalised the mighty oak\u2019s fallen branches with a unique artwork that made waves at the recent Skibbereen Arts Festival. The three wooden sculptures embody the resilience of the tree, which stands proudly in the garden of his family home.<\/p>\n
Murrough compared the oak tree, which has survived three lightning strikes, to an injured, albeit unbreakable, soldier.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe house was built by my great-great-grandaunt, and she never had children,\u201d he told The Echo.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cMy great-grandmother inherited it as a result, and my family has been here ever since.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe oak tree has been standing here for years. We called it the Somme Oak because my granduncle, Robert Bagnell, brought it back as an acorn from the Battle of the Somme.\u201d<\/p>\n
The First World War offensive, fought from July 1 to November 18 along the River Somme in France in 1916, resulted in more than one million casualties.<\/p>\n
While the 26-year-old said it was concerning to see the \u2018Somme Tree\u2019 damaged during a storm last autumn, the resulting debris made for some interesting artistic material.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the larger branches of the oak tree was ripped off in a storm.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile you don\u2019t want any damage done to the tree, I would be lying if I said I wasn\u2019t excited about working with this type of wood.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs an artist, I have primarily been working with wood that comes from fallen trees on the farm. However, this is a really nice tree with a special story behind it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe history is on my dad\u2019s side of the family, so this means a lot to him. He initially wanted to have beer mats or jewellery made to give to family members as a token of remembrance, but I think he\u2019s okay with me turning it into an art project.\u201d<\/p>\n
The oak tree formed a significant part of Murrough\u2019s childhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery November on Remembrance Sunday, we had a moment of silence around the tree. Other people might have done that in a church, but this was our way of remembering our relatives who died in the First World War.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth my grandfathers served in the First World War.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe family has a military history that we are all very proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tree has been a source of inspiration for Murrough for as long as he can remember.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to draw the tree a lot. It is very evocative because it\u2019s like an old soldier itself. It has been struck by lightning three times. It has big cracks down it, but it is still standing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are a bit worried about it, so we have someone in to try and propagate it so we can keep it alive for as long as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Art has been a huge comfort to Murrough during difficult periods.<\/p>\n
Speaking about the path into his career, he said: \u201cI never finished school due to a severe fungal infection at 16 that left me bedridden until the age of 19. I was in transition year when the condition started. When I was finally well enough to go back, I went to another school.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to find a closer one as the condition made travelling difficult. I found the experience challenging because I wanted to be in college.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead, I was in fifth year, with people who were quite a bit younger than me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI decided to do a PLC course and later studied at the Crawford College of Art and Design. It could have been the wrong decision, but I know now it was the right one.<\/p>\n
\u201cI certainly wasn\u2019t planning on being an artist before the illness. I had my heart set on marine biology when I was in school, so this is a massive change, but I have no regrets because it\u2019s all worked out.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, there was a period of reintegration into social life. I had become quite isolated, so interacting with people was a little difficult at first. Fortunately, going to college fixed all that.\u201d Murrough\u2019s parents have always been extremely supportive.<\/p>\n
\u201cChronic disease can be very difficult to diagnose, and I saw a hell of a lot of doctors before we eventually found out what the cause was.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey did a test for toxins, and I think about six were found in my blood. It lasted three years in total, and my parents were massively supportive during that time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey took care of me and kept looking for doctors, cures, and solutions. I am grateful that they gave me the time, and now it\u2019s like it never happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sculptor hopes the theme of his work will resonate with the public. \u201cAll my work is environmentally themed. It looks at environmental loss and grief and how this affects us psychologically, as well as looking at potential reasons for hope and positivity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese particular works take on the meaning of loss and grief from the First World War.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are inspired by the cross gravestones you find in France from the First and Second World War.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It started its life as a tiny acorn brought home by his great-granduncle from the battlefield he fought…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[81388,307,304,305,306,79,308,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-587951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-crawford-art-gallery","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-cork-news","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587951","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=587951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}