Roscrea woodcarver places first in prestigious Canadian festival

ROSCREA woodcarver Paradzai Havatitye enjoyed a triumphant few days in Canada last week when he placed first in a couple of competitions in the prestigious and highly competitive Manitou Beach Chainsaw Carving Festival.

Paradzai (Para) is well known in Ireland for his fantastic work but over the last few years he has been scorching a trail of excellence at a number of festivals in the US and Canada.

Manitou Beach is a resort village in the province of Saskatchewan which holds its famous festival over four days in August each year.

Each contestant is highly skilled and the judges face a difficult task each year of declaring the overall winner. The contestants carve their pieces over the four days from a large piece of wood that's on the site.

Para's sculpture was called "With a moo moo here and a moo moo there" and was inspired by Saskatchewan's farming life. “The land is fertile,” commented the carver, “and the people, especially the farming community, are cheerful and very welcoming. I feel right at home.”

His sculpture depicted a cow, calf, hen and a cat. He said he was thrilled when it was announced on Sunday that the festival committee had awarded his piece first prize (overall winner); and it had also been awarded the People's Prize. Para said it had been a great, fun-packed show and he hoped to return to Manitou Beach for next year's festival.