Bird: Conor Fallon 1981

Conor Fallon (1939-207), Aosdána Member Honorary member of the R.H.A, Oireachtas gold medal for sculpture 1980

Born in Dublin, to renowned Athenry poet and playwright Padraic Fallon and Dubliner Dorothea Maher, Fallon is one of the finest Irish sculptors of the twentieth century.Reared on a farm in Co Wexford, his home was always full of visiting writers, musicians and painters includingTony O'Malley and the poet Austin Clarke
As a child he often copied drawings of birds from wildlife books and he began to paint in 1957 at TCD,while studying natural science,which he soon left turning his attention to fine art.

In 1964 He moved to Penzance, Cornwall, where he joined the St Ives group of artists, which included family friend, the Kilkenny painter Tony O'Malley.
After marrying Welsh-born painter Nancy Wynne-Jones in 1966 he took up dairy farming."The milking of cows and the shaping of sleek, modernist sculpture went hand in hand for one of Ireland's leading sculptors"

In 1972, the family returned to Kinsale Co .Cork and in the late eighties they finally settled in Wicklow.
Fallon threw himself full time into sculpture, working mainly in steel and occasionally in cast bronze. His subjects were primarily wildlife, particularly hares, horses, fish and birds (all part of the Celtic tradition). He retained a passion for birds of prey, their balance of taut energy in stillness with rapid movement of attack being perfect examples for the clean, aerodynamic lines of his work

So it is fitting that this piece looks out on to the nesting area on Bushy Island that the White Tailed Sea Eagles have successfully chosen as one of their places to re-establish themselves in Ireland. One can only speculate what the artist would have thought about Mountshannon`s White Tailed Sea Eagles and the fact that his sculpture was sited here years before their arrival to commemorate Mountshannon’s success winning the Tidy Towns competition in 1981.The shield in this piece often captures light from the setting sun coming from the direction of Inis Cealtra, thus nicknamed the Firebird.

​His larger pieces include : the wonderful “Pegasus” sculptures commissioned for the Irish Independent's building beside the N7 at City West with the three iconic gigantic bronze horses with stainless steel wings , the 7 metre high Singing Bird at the Irish Life building in Dublin, the beautiful Bird of Hope in St Patrick's Hospital, Kilmainham,and his Singing Bird, at Enniscorthy bridge in Co Wexford.