Wind Sculpture Refurbishment

Many of you will have noticed in recent weeks that the wind sculpture on the seafront opposite the Food Room in Clontarf has been cleaned up and repainted. All of the credit for this goes to local artcist, Anne McGill, who firstly spotted that work was needed and then went ahead and made various phone calls to get the work done.

Congratulations and thanks to Anne. We asked her how she managed to get the work done.

"Last September 2010 I decided to organise the refurbishment of the ‘Wind Sculpture’ at the junction of the Alfie Byrne Road and Clontarf Road. I was waiting for someone else to do it so I decided to check out who would be responsible for the restoration. I rang Eamon O’Dohery, the sculptor, who made the piece in 1988, and he was delighted to hear that I was going to pursue it and that I should get in touch with Dublin City Council.

It was getting rather rusted and the moving parts were seizing up. Eamon is Ireland’s most famous public sculptor, having over 40 large public sculptures worldwide with 30 sited throughout Ireland and six pieces in Dublin including the Golden Tree at Central Bank Plaza, James Connolly Memorial at Butt bridge and the famous ‘Floozy in the Jacuzzi’.

I got in touch with Eoin Ward, Senior Parks superintendent and he stated that if I made a request to Gerry Barry, the City Parks Superintendent, with price quotes from 3 painter decorator firms they would have a look at it. He didn’t think the project was possible since next years budget was accounted for and their funding was being reduced so I would have to get funding from the locality. I contacted the Clontarf Association and they were very supportive in getting this work carried out.

I contacted 6 painting firms from the surrounding area and I got quotes from 3 of them. They were all quite competitive as they saw this as a good high profile piece to work on.

I then approached all the local businesses located near the Sculpture along the seafront and most of them were willing to contribute funding if necessary.

I then submitted the quotes and a letter stating the reasons for having the sculpture refurbished to the City Parks Department. Since the costing was lower than they had anticipated they agreed that it was possible to carry out the restoration. They also decided that it was best to do it before doing the ‘Flood Protection’ scheme. So I was delighted they were prompt in getting the work done and that I did not have to raise funding for it. So three month after having the idea the piece was completed!"