(Photo caption: The Three Graces, Cathal Brugha Street, Dublin — probably the supreme freestanding/architectural sculpture in Ballinasloe limestone. The giant group represents three women engaged in domestic activities. It was carved from limestone from the Brackernagh Quarry weighs close to 17 tons, and the standing central figure is about 10 feet high. Scultor Gabriel Hayes acclaimed work on the curved corner of the former College of Domestic Science, Cathal Brugha Street, Dublin. The three figures represent Sweeping, Spinning and Sewing; Sculpture Dublin dates the work to 1943.)
Ballinasloe’s Limestone Legacy Week takes place in October from Saturday the 17th to Saturday the 24th. This week-long series of events is the culmination of a year of extensive research by Ballinasloe & District Heritage Society into the history of the internationally famed limestone quarries of Ballinasloe. Limestone Legacy Week is a collaboration between the Heritage Society, Galway County Council Heritage Office and the artist collective, Group 8.
The story of Ballinasloe Limestone is not just one of the architectural heritage and social history of our own town, but one of the industrial, commercial, built and architectural history and heritage of Ireland. The height of the quarries’ commercial success was in the 19th century, when architects, engineers and builders called for Ballinasloe Limestone to be used extensively in building projects across Ireland and Britain. The limestone was quarried, cut and dressed in an ecosystem of hundreds of quarrymen, stone cutters, masons and sculptors, before being transported by canal, rail and sea for use in the construction of banks, churches, houses, railways and commemorative monuments across these isles and even the United States. After a fallow period at the start of the 20th century, the Brackernagh quarries were bought by John Sisk & Co. in 1939. They set up Top Quarries, and another chapter in the story was written.
An exhibition of art produced by Group 8 celebrating Ballinasloe Limestone will be displayed in the Church Gallery in the library from Tuesday 12th October to Friday the 23rd. From Friday 16th, an extensive research and discovery display will be added to form an exhibition called Quarried, Carved and Crafted: Ballinasloe’s Limestone Legacy. A short story by Eugene Watters, partly set in Beegan’s Quarry, is also being produced as a booklet for the exhibition, with sketches by local artist and Group 8 member Fiona Ormsby.
Ballinasloe’s Limestone Legacy Week will be launched on Saturday, October 17th at 2.30pm in the Church Gallery, Ballinasloe Library by Professor Patrick Wyse Jackson. An authority on the building stones of Ireland, Professor Jackson is Professor Emeritus of Geology in Trinity College, Curator Emeritus of its Geology Museum, and a member of the Royal Academy of Ireland. On Saturday 24th October at 2.30pm, Padraic Kilduff will give a talk in St John’s Church on the role played by architect James Forth Kempster and his sons in the design of the beautiful limestone buildings in the Ballinasloe townscape and its hinterland. A new podcast documenting the story of Ballinasloe Limestone, presented and narrated by Ferghal D’arcy, will also be launched that day. A number of school outreach events will take place during the week as well. All events are free of charge and all in the community are welcome.
