Artist laments the loss of old structures on the new Mountcharles-Inver road

Artist and sculptor Niall Bruton has created a stunning piece of stonework that depicts the rich history and heritage of the area – particularly the local built heritage.

However, his N56 Mountcharles to Inver Road Scheme Percent for Art Scheme sculpture also represents a dilemma for the Dubliner who has been living here for the past 35 years.

Based at the Craft Village outside Donegal Town, Niall works mainly with jewellery but has also designed several prominent sculptures on road projects including works in Rosses Point, Sligo, Kilmacrennan and Derry 

Niall has mixed emotions about the overall project.

"I fought that road for almost 15 years. I bought the historic old creamery manager's house on this road at Drumduff. It was beside the creamery which was built in 1904 by Horace Plunkett, a man who had a formative influence on the cooperative movement.

In fact, Niall had hoped initially to buy the creamery and convert it into a small museum and gallery.

He made drawings and photographs of the workings of the creamery such as cogwheels as all the old equipment was still intact. He also made drawings from the Drumduff Corn Mill which was also tossed. 

"The creamery was very historic. In 1922 after the sergeant was killed in Mountcharles the Black and Tans burned it to the ground and took over the house that I live in, threw the manager out on the road and put a machine gun up on the roof.”

He adds he was given the impression when the road started development it would be nowhere near him but as it turned out plans and minds changed.

"They targeted the old buildings on this road, that's my interpretation of it and drew a straight line between the old Tannery and the old Creamery and in the default Donegal mentality, all buildings are for tossing. I argued it black and blue, took matters to An Bord Pleanála (ABP). Their planning inspector agreed with me but was overruled as the council would not relent on their preferred route.

"The councillors rubber-stamped it and the creamery and Tannery were tossed with unseemly haste. It was just levelled with all its machinery fully intact from 1904. 

“Everything was bulldozed apart from one piece. The road went right through the centre of the creamery and as the tannery was in the way it went too, even though it was a little to one side. Two of the most historic buildings in the area were flattened.

"In the 1911 census, the creamery was the most important building in south Donegal.

“I was sick. this was a crime against the culture and heritage of the area. I salvaged a few stones and thought the best I could do was make something from it to mark the fact these buildings were here.

"I set out to encapsulate the heritage of this area in the sculpture. The council, in a roundabout way, has funded  what I would see as an indictment of their policy in that they see heritage as a soft touch."

When the art competition for a structure to go along with the new development came up Niall decided he would sculpt something in memory of what had been destroyed.

"I wanted to have something about the area and apart from the stones that were salvaged from the creamery, it also reflects the heritage of the area's rich stone quarries and the workings of the machinery at the creamery and the corn mill."

He praised Brian and Pauirc at Drumkeelan Quarry for the work they put in erecting the stone heritage work structure.

The imagery in the work also depicts a number of other visual references including the rays of the sun setting in the north-west, a ship's wheel in acknowledgment to the sea-faring people of this part of the county, a giant shell and in an ironic twist given the story, there's also an unfurling spiral peeling off from the structure in a nod to development and the unstoppable hand of progress.

It also celebrates local tradesmen from the past through stone arch works.

There is also a complex stainless steel structure inside the artwork made by Donegal Precision Engineering in Donegal Town to hold all the stones together.

Local school children from nearby Inver and Keelogs national schools also contributed to the structure. Niall did two workshops and using items they supplied, he incorporated their input by imprinting these onto clay which will be added to the overall piece before the official unveiling.

"It gives them a sense of ownership of the piece and ties in the local generations too."

Niall is currently designing pieces for roundabouts in Bundoran, a man certainly making his mark in more ways than one!