Patrick Comerford
I know from recent experiences in a civic project in Stony Stratford how controversial public sculptures can be, and I have a little taste of the difficult criticism sculptors receive for the topics and the design of their work.
During our recent visit to Belfast, I returned to seem two of my favourite sculptures in the city, although they been controversial in ways that stand outside the usual political debates in Northern Ireland.
These two sculptures challenge the stereotype of political divisions based on sectarian and national conflict and instead encourage debate about women’s rights and the left/right divide that is often absent from political discussion in Northern Ireland.
‘The Monument to the Unknown Woman Worker’ is a 1992 sculpture by Louise Walsh on Great Victoria Street, near the Europa Hotel. It is cast in bronze and features two working class women with symbols of low paid work and unpaid women’s work embedded on the surfaces.
The domestic items include colanders, a shopping basket and clothes pegs, while the workplace items include a typist’s typewriter and a switchboard operator’s telephone. The older woman has a handle weaving in and out of her breasts, her earrings are ‘dummies,’ a hanger makes up her shoulder blades, and a slotted spatula and colander protrude from her buttocks.
The younger woman has multiple hairbrushes on her head. You also see a waitress’s apron, a hairdressing scissors and newspaper headlines from the 1940s such as ‘she’s engaged’ and ‘doesn’t she look lovely!’ – an ironic take on typical media references to women at the time.
Louise Walsh was born in Co Cork, studied at Crawford Municipal School of Art in Cork and gained her MA in Sculpture from the University of Ulster, Belfast (1986). She has been a lecturer in the Sculpture Department at National College of Art and Design, Dublin (1996-2002) and is known for many public artworks in Belfast, Cavan, Dublin, Limerick and at Heathrow Airport.
Louise Walsh’s work is marked by her life-size energetic figures that challenge conventional depictions of women. She has exhibited at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) and Temple Bar Gallery in Dublin, the Belltable Arts Centre, Limerick, and in Graz in Austria in Dublin, Cavan and Limerick.
The Department of the Environment’s original commission for her work in Belfast in the late 1980s was for a work near the Crown Bar reflecting the history of nearby Amelia Street as a former red-light district, with ‘two colourful life-size ‘cartoon’ female figures’.
Louise Walsh argued it is offensive to portray women this way. The proposal was framed by a narrow view of this part of Belfast, overlooking the its diverse social history. It was once densely populated, with people working in a variety of employment, including in the linen factories and on the railways, with many women working in unpaid or low-paying jobs.
Until then, the only depiction of the female in sculpture in Northern Ireland was Queen Victoria, while all the men in sculptures were famous military men, political figures or religious leaders.
Louise Walsh submitted a proposal for two bronze female figures, addressing the underlying issues of women’s low-paid jobs and unpaid housework. Her design for her ‘Monument to the Unknown Woman Worker’ was accepted by the project’s landscape architect and the Art in Public Spaces Research Group.
However, the Belfast Development Office and the Belfast City Council opposed the project and the selected design, and the project was dropped in 1989.
Louise Walsh believes the political opposition to her proposal was fuelled by the sectarian politics of the time and debates about who is worthy of being commemorated in Northern Ireland. There was little or discussion about what art is or about the meaning of commemoration, and debate is said to have been one the longest ever debate in Belfast City Council.
‘Belfast has no heart for tarts,’ read one headline. ‘Shady ladies get the boot,’ read another. ‘Protest at the red light sculpture,’ said a third.
A few years later, a private developer recommissioned the work and eventually it was erected in 1992 facing the Crown Bar on the corner of Great Victoria Street and Amelia Street. Technically it stands on private land outside the former Great Victoria Street rail station. But to this day it is banned from public land in Belfast.
The second sculpture I visited in Belfast is ‘No Pasaran! They Shall Not Pass’, a bronze figure of a Brigadista head by Anto Brennan in Writers’ Square on Donegall Street, opposite Saint Anne’s Cathedral.
The Spanish Civil War in 1936-1939 gave many an opportunity to stand against the rise of fascism across Europe. Men and women from all over the world answered the call to defend democracy and their working-class counterparts. About 320 Irish volunteers fought against Franco’s forces as members of the XV International Brigade, although others from Ireland fought in Franco’s right-wing nationalist forces.
Belfast was deeply divided in the 1930s by political and religious conflict, yet 78 men from Northern Ireland fought in the Spanish Civil War. Breaking down sectarian divisions, 48 Catholics and Protestants served side-by-side in the ranks of the International Brigades, including 12 who died in Spain.
There are other memorials in Belfast recalling the Spanish Civil War. A plaque in the John Hewitt Bar recalls how Roberta and John Hewitt housed Basque refugees during the Spanish Civil War. The Spanish Civil War window by Alpha Glass in Belfast City Hall was unveiled by the Lord Mayor, Arder Carson, in 2015, with the support of all political parties on the council.
Anto Brennan’s statue in Writers’ Square was commissioned by the International Brigade Commemoration Committee and erected by the Open Window Production Team. It was unveiled by Bob Doyle, a veteran of the International Brigade, on 13 October 2007.
Jack Jones, President of the IBMT and former general secretary of the TGWU, who also fought in the International Brigades, was also present day, as were Jack Edwards, a Liverpool volunteer, and at least 18 families of Irish veterans.
The plaque reads:
Dedicated to the people of Belfast,
the island of Ireland and beyond who joined
the XV International Brigade to fight Fascism
in the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939,
and those men and women from all traditions
who supported the Spanish working people
and their Republic.
No Pasaran! They Shall Not Pass
The sculptor Anto Brennan is probably best known for his satirical ‘Piece Process’ chess set and his client list includes Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Mary McAleese and Mo Mowlam.
He was inspired to turn to sculpture while he was working as a builder in London in the early 1990s, when he started making clay figures. He returned to Belfast in 1993 and turned his craft into a career, taking a stall in Smithfield Market with his brother Geraldo.
His ‘Piece Process’ chess board includes caricatures of Ian Paisley, Gerry Adams, Tony Blair, David Trimble, Mary McAleese and John Hume, while the pawns are RUC and IRA figures. Large versions of the ‘Piece Process’ are on display in City Hall and McHugh’s bar in Belfast, and in Hillsborough Castle.
Anto Brennan was brought up in a socialist family, and was always interested in politics.
His 6 foot statue of James Larkin, the Labour leader and founder of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), was commissioned by ICTU in 2007 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Larkin’s arrival in Belfast. Other recent works include a 6 ft stone model of the Titanic to mark its centenary, and 8 ft high sculptures of shipyard workers for the Kremlin nightclub in Belfast.
Earlier this month, there were critical responses to Anto Brennan’s new statue of Queen Elizabeth II in Antrim Castle Gardens. The bronze sculpture was commissioned by Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council and also features Prince Philip and two corgis. But public responses have compared his depiction of Queen Elizabeth to a fisherwoman, Little Bo-Peep and Mrs Doubtfire.
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