The Roscrea sculptures of artist Jerry Cahir

Picture above taken by Brian Redmond on Thursday 11th January. Present are ( L/R) Jerry Cahir, Barry Liffey (Liffey Mills), Denis Sharpe (Mount Dudley), Ivan Hastings (Abbey Mills), Denis Ryan (Chairman, Roscrea Tidy Towns) and Dick Conroy (Roscrea Tidy Towns). Jerry explained this installation to those present. The millwheel was donated by Barry Liffey of Liffey Mills.

Since its foundation in the early 1980s, Roscrea Tidy Towns has striven to enhance Roscrea’s footprint in the national perspective through their performance in the National Competition. 

While having great success in the past ten years, we acknowledge the Trojan work done by earlier members – ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine –  an old Irish saying that translated is 'Under the shelter of each other, people survive', or, 'We are nothing without community'. 

This is especially true for Tidy Towns as the improvements of past committees’ endeavours contribute to the overall enrichment of Roscrea as we see it today.

In recent times, we have been greatly aided by generous donations by Jerry Cahir, who has sold his artwork and donated the proceeds to both Roscrea Tidy Towns and Roscrea Hospice.  

He also created a great number of rustic art sculptures based on mythology and history which he donated to Roscrea Tidy Towns.  

The most prominent of these is on The Mall and commemorates The Battle of Roscrea – shown on the top of the composite image on the left.  

A simple plaque  has been erected at each sculpture to give some explanation for each one.

This year, the last of Jerry’s sculptures has been installed on the Monastery Road.  These two sculptures commemorate the contribution to society of the various mills throughout the locality, but especially the Monastery Mill.  

They were enabled by the generous donations of a millwheel and augers by local millers whose mills have survived through the ages.  The importance of the flour milling industry in the fabric of Roscrea cannot be overlooked.

Kathleen Moloughney, in her books 'Roscrea Me Darlin' (1987) and 'Roscrea My Heart's Home' (1992), records that there were as many as fourteen mills in the locality forming a large contribution to the local economy with their labour-intensive production.  

Pictured above (L/R) are Ivan Hastings who donated the augers used in the sculpture, Barry Liffey, Denis Ryan and Dick Conroy (Roscrea Tidy Towns), Denis Sharpe (Mount Dudley) and creator of the piece Jerry Cahir. Photo: Brian Redmond

She further records that not only was the locality largely dependent on them for employment, but also a large range of craftsmen who were sub-contractors such as carpenters, blacksmiths, coopers,  and farmers. Together with labourers they all contributed to the production of flour. 

The sourcing of cheaper American flour in the late 19th century was a death blow to many of the mills causing their closure and contributing to the mass migration of many labourers and craftsmen seeking work abroad.  

Her book 'Roscrea My Heart’s Home' has this paragraph: “Indirectly, the closing of the flour mills affected many people engaged in other areas of craft and industry such as coopers, carpenters, blacksmiths, and farmers.  Coopers made the barrels to hold the corn.  Carpenters made and repaired carts, the long wooden 'brakes' which were used for transport by the mills.  Irish draught horses were bred by farmers for hauling these.  Blacksmiths were required to shoe the horses and to bind the cartwheels with iron”.

The Bunnow Mill Ruins Location

The location of the sculptures outside Mount Dudley is most significant – the road here is properly called Mill Road, as across the road from Mount Dudley, where the water treatment plant is now located, was the site of Bunnow Mills, a large mill in the 1800s that gave the road its name.  

There was no road to the monastery at that time – this was only constructed in the late 19th century following the arrival of the monks to Roscrea.

The sculpture is in two parts – one is an actual millstone – donated by Barry Liffey of Liffey Mills – from the old mill – quite possibly one of the monastic mill’s original stones, while the other is a complementary construction by Jerry using three augers – donated by Ivan Hastings of Hastings Mill, Abbey Street – which were used to transport the grain horizontally from one area to another. 

To these Jerry has added three heads that he has sculpted to represent the monastic millers.  In constructing this sculpture, Jerry wanted to acknowledge the work of the monks in Mount St. Joseph and to commemorate their generosity.  He also wanted to put on record their famous Abbey Bread.  

Some people will probably remember the loaves which the monks produced and sold to the public.  This operation was discontinued in the not too distant past but has recently been revived by Manus Heenan,  a student at the time at Mount St. Joseph, who incidentally was in the college at the same time as Barry Liffey’s son, and who won the Overall National Student Enterprise award 2018 – his promotional material states: “Abbey Bread, award-winning Yeast Bread Mix inspired by the Bread Making Tradition at Mount St Joseph Abbey, Roscrea.” 

 On his website abbeybread.ie promoting the brand he records: “The tradition of yeast bread making in Mount St Joseph dates back to 1896 when the first loaves were baked by Brothers Robert and Philip with stoneground flour produced in the nearby mill, also owned by the monks and baked in a purpose built, turf fired oven, bread making continued on a daily basis until 2010. 

“The last monks to bake the bread were Brothers John and Oliver… sadly Brother John and Brother Oliver passed away in 2019”.

Also recorded on this site was the fact that during the years 1896-2010 as many as 200 loaves were baked daily.  

The installation of all of Jerry’s sculptures was completed by Roscrea Community Forum Workers under the supervision of Mr. Paddy Reidy. 

This involved the preparation of the sites at which the sculptures are installed.  Originally, the sculptures were rusty – hence the name Rustic Art – and were subsequently painted by the CE Workers before being transported to and installed at their various locations.

Pictured above are some of Jerry Cahir's other pieces dotted around Roscrea town centre, including the large 'Battle of Roscrea' installation on the Mall

This current installation represents not only the monastic and other millers and workers but is also a true community co-operative effort with the donations of the artifacts from local mills, the unique sculpture construction by Jerry Cahir for Roscrea’s enhancement and the installation work by Roscrea Tidy Towns Section of the Community Employment Forum workers.  

The official launch of these sculptures took place on Thursday, January 11th, 2024.   

Roscrea Tidy Towns would like to thank Jerry for his generous contributions over the past few years. 

We also wish to thank the Sharpe family, outside who’s property they stand, for their support in allowing the installation to take place. 

We also wish to acknowledge the Trojan work completed by Roscrea Community Employment Forum workers under the supervision of Paddy Reidy. 

We would especially like to thank both Ivan Hastings and Barry Liffey – owners of the two still existing mills in the area – for their donations of the artifacts. 

Barry Liffey informed us that the millwheel used in this sculpture was an ancient one that had been on display in the yard of the Fanure Mill.  Could it be that it was one originally used by the monks?  

The enhancements of past Tidy Towns committees have made a great contribution to the town.  Roscrea Tidy Towns feel these sculptures add so much to the town and not only commemorate historic items, but also create wonder and discussion by those who stop to appreciate them.