Foxglove

• 03/Jul/2023 07:13:30

it's the boy on the buoy !

suckindeesel

• 03/Jul/2023 07:27:55

[https://flic.kr/p/2gc2xSt] via eon60 1821 www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/32304...

Deirge (Del)

• 03/Jul/2023 07:43:47

Wikipedia has it as a 3.7m guardian statue put there by fisherman in 1821.

ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq

• 03/Jul/2023 07:51:50

Grab some popcorn - youtu.be/7F_u3uO1zGQ (2020)

ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq

• 03/Jul/2023 07:58:06

His brother near Tramore - https://www.flickr.com/photos/yournlireland/6096114734/in/photostream/

Niall McAuley

• 03/Jul/2023 08:25:55

https://www.flickr.com/photos/184711311@N04 This figurative navigation beacon, cast in 1819 by Thomas Kirke in London, forms an important element of the maritime history of County Sligo. The sturdy construction of the podium attests to the high quality of the stone masonry while the cast-iron statue raises the interest of the beacon above the ordinary.

Niall McAuley

• 03/Jul/2023 08:27:19

The DIA has a different timeline: CO. SLIGO, ROSSES POINT, METAL MAN Date: 1815-22 Nature: 12-foot-high statue of 'A British Tar' erected as a beacon, for the Ballast Board. Sketch exh. Dublin, 1815. Model exh. London, 1817. Town & Harbour Commissioners advertise for stone pillar 10 ft above high water upon which to place metal man, 'now lying on the quay', 1822.. Commissioners decide to paint same, 1825.

ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq

• 03/Jul/2023 09:10:23

The Tramore brother - ... He is thought to be the work of Thomas Kirk who is also believed to have carved the statue of Lord Nelson, which used to stand in O'Connell Street in Dublin. Thomas Kirk was born in Cork in 1781 and carved the statue of Nelson in 1808. He died in 1845. ... From - homepage.tinet.ie/~edrice/town/metalman.htm And - ...The iron metal man figure itself was designed by Thomas Kirk. Only two of the four figures originally planned to make, were cast from that mould and the other figure sits in the water of Sligo Bay at Rosses Point, here the Metal Man is on a small pillar down in the harbour and not visible from long distances like the one in Tramore. ... From - tramore.ie/the-metal-man/

Niall McAuley

• 03/Jul/2023 09:16:29

On his Waterford brother, the NIAH says: The Cork-born sculptor Thomas Kirk (1781-1845) could boast a healthy client base in the early nineteenth century with large-scale works including Nelson’s Pillar (1808; destroyed 1966) in Sackville Street O’Connell Street, Dublin, and small-scale funerary monuments in churches across the country. Kirk exhibited a sketch for a “Jack Tar” at the Hibernian Society of Artists in Dublin in 1815 and a model of the same in London two years later. Two years later still a cast of the “Jack Tar” was made by John Clarke at the request of the Ballast Board. The figure, twice life size and pointing to Hook Head and the entrance to Waterford Harbour, is dressed in the uniform of British sailors at the time of the sinking of HMS Sea Horse: a gold-buttoned royal blue coat worn over a bright red waistcoat and white trousers.

suckindeesel

• 03/Jul/2023 09:16:32

https://www.flickr.com/photos/30369211@N00/ The Waterford one is “A "Jack Tar" exhibited (1817) by Thomas Kirk (1781-1845) of Cork..” according to the NIAH. The same figure in Sligo is a RN petty officer, again according to the NIAH.

ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq

• 03/Jul/2023 09:37:35

Spot The Differences! ... via https://www.flickr.com/photos/paulmccanny/ in 2011 https://www.flickr.com/photos/paulmccanny/6237124883/ via https://www.flickr.com/photos/galtees/ in2009 https://www.flickr.com/photos/galtees/3739533358/

John Spooner

• 03/Jul/2023 09:43:11

I wonder when he began to be known as the "Metal Man". There's a report in the "casulaties at sea" column in Bell's New Weekly Messenger on Sunday 18 October 1835, suggesting the name was already well established by that date.

SLIGO 7th Oct. —The Culloden, Macauly, from Newcastle to this port, got aground near the Metal Man last night, fell over and sunk, and it is feared will be wrecked.

John Spooner

• 03/Jul/2023 09:55:39

And there's a reference to his southern confrère as the Metal Man in the Waterford Chronicle - Wednesday 11 February 1846

Niall McAuley

• 03/Jul/2023 11:53:39

Both are marked on the 1830s 6" OSI map , the Sligo one as The Metal Man (A Beacon) and Waterford as Metal Man Tower.

Deirge (Del)

• 03/Jul/2023 13:10:08

[https://www.flickr.com/photos/beachcomberaustralia] My faulty memory has vague recollections of the Sligo man going off for a refurbishment at some point in the 21st century becuase he was looking a bit weatherbeaten. But it might be in relation to the promotion of the Wild Atlantic Way. I think I was i Rosses point at some point between 2000 and 2010 and I'm fairly sure I have a picture of yer man but I'm not going to easily find it. There's two other Irish Light markers at Rosses point; one is the The Oyster Island Lighthose. The other is the 1908 Lower Rosses Light, an 8m high square structure to guide the boats down the Needles channel to Drumcliff Bay. Now solar powered it can be seen from the northern end of the Rosses Point peninsular and is on my bicket list of a needed photo. Out to the west in the bay there's another light ambiguously named ''Blackrock lighthouse''. Ros Cheide has some grand strands that are great for the paddlers and for the safe swimming, unlike its opposite number Strandhill known for its quicksands, underwater boulders, crashing waves, and rip tides.

O Mac

• 03/Jul/2023 13:25:29

There's also the Nerrano Man in Dalkey which has a connection to both the Sligo and Tramore metal men. irishlighthouses.blogspot.com/2014/07/nerrano-man-dalkey.... There's another here in Galway at the old fisheries school which I will try and photograph later.

Niall McAuley

• 03/Jul/2023 13:43:17

[https://www.flickr.com/photos/196366907@N03] from the NIAH again: 22 October 2020 After almost four weeks of cleaning, conserving and painting, the Metal Man, Sligo, is once again ship-shape and Bristol fashion. The cast-iron Jack Tar, a navigation beacon located mid-channel between Rosses Point and Oyster Island, has pointed to safe passage into Sligo Harbour ever since it was first unveiled in 1821. The figure with outstretched arm was designed by the Cork-born sculptor, Thomas Kirk (1781-1845), and has a twin near Tramore in County Waterford The Metal Man has been a source of inspiration to many and was immortalised by Jack B. Yeats (1871-1957) in a series of watercolours including “Memory Harbour” (1900). The Metal Man continues to inspire and locals and visitors to Yeats Country have watched the works in progress and appreciated that the conservation has been carried out to exacting standards. The conservation, a joint effect between the Infrastructure Directorate of Sligo County Council and Sligo Heritage Office, was made possible by a grant of €25,500 from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage under the Historic Structures Fund 2020 with matching funding from Sligo County Council. The conservation has seen The Metal Man rejuvenated just in time to celebrate his 200th birthday in 2021.

O Mac

• 03/Jul/2023 13:55:52

The Claddagh Metal Man.. looks like he came out of the same mould. 8 Claddagh Quay maps.app.goo.gl/ripDqS2CUSosYnt4A Here he is atop the the Piscatorial School. catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000323170

Niall McAuley

• 03/Jul/2023 14:49:23

On the Claddagh, the school is later: The first stone of the school was laid on February 21st, 1846...A prominent statue of a Claddagh fisherman was placed over the advanced central bay of the façade. The NIAH and DIA do not have any info on the statue.

suckindeesel

• 03/Jul/2023 16:22:17

https://www.flickr.com/photos/91549360@N03/ Looks similar but different attire. Funny how Google blurs his face as if he’s a real person

ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq

• 03/Jul/2023 22:12:17

So many Metal Men, so little time ... Not Mae West