A life-size bronze sculpture of the legendary seanchaí, the late Eamon Kelly, whose art was "theatre of the fireside", was yesterday unveiled by his widow Mrs Maura Kelly in his native village of Gneeveguilla, near Killarney, Co Kerry. Anne Lucey reports.
The €50,000 project, depicting the seanchaí in story-telling pose in the heart of the village, was set in train by the Sliabh Luachra Historical Society which works to preserve the musical and literary traditions of the Cork-Kerry border area.
"Eamon took every opportunity to return to Gneeveguilla," said Mr Donal Hickey, editor of the Sliabh Luachra historical journal and a journalist with the Irish Examiner.
"His art as the seanchaí was truly theatre of the fireside which he crafted into a style unique to himself. He polished this art and brought it to the stage and broadcasting studio where he established his own special place in the history of Irish entertainment," Mr Hickey said. The monument, by the sculptor Mr Don Cronin, was not something for the present generation, but for future generations who would ask about Eamon Kelly, the chairman of the Sliabh Luachra Historical Society, Mr Martin Murphy, said.
"Eamon was to storytelling what Pádraig O'Keeffe, Denis Murphy, Julia Clifford, Johnny O'Leary, Seán Ó Riada and many others were to traditional music. But, in storytelling, he was all of them put together," Mr Murphy said. Eamon Kelly died in 2001 at the age of 87.