McTigue sculpts tribute to legendary fiddler

KILNAMONA’S Michael McTigue has just completed a sculpture honouring one of Ireland’s great traditional musicians, Sean Maguire.

 

The piece will be brought to Kilcogy in County Cavan soon. Michael said Maguire, who died in 2005, was an outstanding talent. “Sean Maguire is regarded as Ireland’s greatest ever traditional fiddle player. It depicts him playing and it’s based on one of his albums. The notation on it is from the tune The Mason’s Apron. Most musicians would tell you it’s the most difficult reel to play, there’s about eight different parts to it, most reels have just two parts. It uses the entire fret of notes from end to end,” Michael told The Clare Champion.

The sculpture is going to be in Maguire’s father’s home place. “His father came from there. Sean was actually born in Belfast but his roots are in Cavan and it’s going to be unveiled in conjunction with the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil in Cavan which takes place in August. Labhrás Ó Murchú is going to be doing the unveiling and Antoin MacGabhann, who is an internationally known fiddle player, is the guy I’m dealing with on it.”

The work is done on limestone and the main item on it is the fiddler’s face, while there is also a fiddle and bow along with a tin whistle, the instrument his father played.

He said that while he had some guidelines for the piece, he had quite a bit of freedom on it. “They would have had an idea but they’d leave it to me. This is a fairly inexpensive way of doing a piece of sculpture because it’s a series of incise lines. Even though it’s three-dimensional, it’s actually a flat piece of stone. Getting the perspective right is the hardest part of it.”

When he spoke to The Clare Champion, there was a piece on the Fair of Spancilhill in his yard and a stone sign for Shannon town. Work was also in progress on headstones, which is a huge part of Michael’s business.

Limestone is what he uses most of the time. “It’s a soft stone and it’s easy to work. Most people traditionally want limestone anyway, because it’s a native stone.”

He said the work is something that’s in his blood. “My father was a monumental sculptor and I’m doing this since I was 19. It’s been in the family all my life.”

The trade is going into a third generation now, as his 27-year-old son, Eamonn, is working in the business, alongside his father. He also enjoys what he’s doing. “It’s always been there, it’s like asking a farmer’s son does he like farming, I was born into this, it has always been what it is. I do enjoy it and I like the freedom of being out and about and doing different jobs.”