Conal Creedon
Well I suppose the fact that it’s called the statue is in itself a statement that in a city that has so
many statues, and always had- you have the National Monument and all these places, the fact that
there’s one that is head and shoulders above all the rest and it’s just known right across the board as
the statue says a lot. For me personally growing up Fr Mathew didn’t mean an awful lot. I didn’t
understand what he was about or what he stood for, but I knew that at one point, in this town, he
must have been a very important man because of this big statue on Patrick’s Bridge. But then I
suppose as you get older I suppose initially what it was, it was the location. That part of town was
known as the Statue – not the statue itself – you know busses, every bus going to the north side
would be on the Eason’s side of the street. Every bus going to the south side left from the Roches
Stores side of the street. That’s changed now but that was the terminus. So when a bus was finished
its round, what went up on the notice board was ‘the statue’ or else ‘An Dealbh’, so that even in a
corporate sense, the area was known as the statue. For dating couples, or even now meeting guys to
go somewhere, we say the statue and it didn’t mean literally to stand at the statue, it meant the
statue was that part of the city really you know. Like for example if people are looking for directions,
you always give the statue as being the sort of the starting point - ‘well you go down to the statue
and then you can, you know...’ And that must be a bit confusing to out of towners because we also
had a thing that used to be known as the Dual Carriageway and the Straight Road and - Dual
Carriageway – it doesn’t make sense now when you look back, but back then it stood for something.
And then as time went on, the essence of Fr Mathew and what he was about sort of creeps into your
life, your broader knowledge and I suppose the big one I remember as a kid for example, it was a
commonly used phrase here for fellows that were giving up the drink for lent or whatever, they’d
say I’m on the tac – ‘you know I’m on the tac now at the moment’ or ‘he’s on the tac’ and I just
always, I never really figured out what that was about until later on I realised the tac was the T A C
– the Total Abstinence Crusade you know that went right back to Fr Mathew’s time and you know
when people gave up the drink they would join the Total Abstinence Crusade and so they’d say
‘I’m on the TAC, I’m on the tac’.
And then I suppose on a different level totally right there’s that sort of I suppose, what would I call it
–anarchic Cork humour where you’ve this man, the Apostle of Temperance and he’s standing there
on Patrick’s Bridge and there’s a few sort of – they’re not even urban myths but there sort of
known. So he stands there and he’s got his ledger in one hand, probably for signing up for the tac
and he’s got his right hand is out there and the line in Cork is that what he’s saying is that ‘I haven’t
touched a drop since I was that height’, right and then what you find is that particularly more so
before, like I suppose you’d call them wits or witlesses, whatever they are, or half-wits, on the way
home from the pub would put a pint bottle into his arm you know, so there was the Apostle of
Temperance with a pint bottle of Guinness in his arm right and I think even beyond that there’s an
interesting little side shoot - these days they’d call it a side bar – but there’s an interesting side
shoot in that this is a huge sculpture, you know I think it was John Hogan made it and it’s a big
massive – in fact in it’s day it had a water font, in fact you can see it on the side that pumped water
but to its right hand side ther is what I would guess is the smallest piece of public sculpture in the
country if not in the world right, it’s a small maybe six inches tall right and maybe about one and a
half feet long and basically it was sculpted by Seamus Murphy who was you know, a sort of God in
these parts and further afield and basically it’s a water trough for dogs and it’s still there – it’s a shoe
shop now but when it was the Old Kentucky restaurant they would fill it with water every day for
dogs right and written along is madraí and there’s sort of this sense of irony that there’s Fr Mathew
saying give up the drink right and then Seamus Murphy is saying just give a dog a drink, do you know
that kind of way right, and I think it even goes further than that right – for example public art –
personally I go through phases right, but I’m at the phase now right where I do like the figurative
public art, where I can look at it and see what – there was a time when I was into it being extremely
abstract and it being shape for shape sake and all that kind of stuff – it’s probably just because
maybe as I get more interested now in factual history than I was before – I think there’s some very
powerful, like for example a lot of main streets in cities have abstract art but I do like the idea that as
you cross the bridge it sort of stands for something and its where people from outside actively
engage with they go read what is this thing, who is this person and so I suppose that’s in a way is
what it means to me. It’s not fundamental to my time. It’s from a different time totally but it’s
certainly fundamental to my – very close to where I live and I remember a while ago there was talk
of moving it – I think sort of to the left to make Patrick’s Street more stream-lined and I’m usually
not that vocal but I just thought that was outrageous – like leave it there you know and they did in
the end and long may it be there.
And what’s interesting too, even it is a statue, it’s a bronze statue but the fact – if you look at the
Cork street ballad the Boys of Fairhill, even within that it’s elevated to an animated – human status
when the line goes, because he’s standing on the cusp of Patrick’s Bridge and the line is ‘the smell
for Patrick’s Bridge is wicked, How do Fr Mathew Stick it’ – and like there’s a real sense of outsiders
saying who’s Fr Mathew? That’s the statue you know. And then the reality of a statue smelling you
know ... so yea, it certainly has ... by its own doing really ... and by the general populace, has a hugely
sort of important place from the point of view, not just the structure and where it stands and thje
location, but I think in the myth, folklore and sort of you know the current culture of the town,
totally engage with it.
Q: Is it important then to commemorate – you know commemoration, what does that mean to you?
This is the 150th of the statue. ‘Twas unveiled 150 years ago this October
A: Oh it’s the 150th of the Statue. Well I suppose I think what’s important in a way is that it’s still
there and I think maybe what could be a good thing is to let people know, remind people why this
person was so important. I think particularly in this present day where when you put the sort of the
prefix of Fr before something, people automatically, there a certain sense of recoiling because of the
way the whole zeitgeist is going at the moment. But when I think you scratch the surface of Fr
Mathew that there’s a fairly wild character there right and over the years, I’ve not researched it in
depth but I would know the story fairly well and incredible guy you know, and so I think maybe just
highlighting people to who this person was and why it is so important and was so important for the
same people of this town but just a long time ago decided this is where he’s going and so if that’s
commemoration fair enough but I suppose it’s good to remind people. Otherwise if people, if there’s
no sense in the consciousness who this person is, it’s sort of pointless having it there really you
know. But I think he’s fairly well embedded in the consciousness of the city you know.
Q: And last thing, it is a symbol, icon of Cork along with others? Yes or no.
A: Interestingly, it wouldn’t be a symbol or an icon. It wouldn’t be like Shandon you know. Like, for
example, the O’Connell Statue in Dublin is an icon in a way. It’s something that crops up as a symbol.
I don’t - in fact I think if you presented a photograph in isolation, a lot of people would assume that
it was the O’Connell Statue or something you know. I don’t if people would actually see it as being
an icon of a city - but I think its presence, in fact its presence in a way is probably more etched into
the minds of people than actually its visual, you know sense, that the people may not actually look at
it and - that is Fr Mathew and that is what it looks like but there’s this sense of – that they’re right at
Patrick’s Bridge and this is the Statue you know.