Irish Rail to spend €100,000 on new sculpture at Galway train station
The sculpture will be titled The Birds of Fuarán Mór, the great spring, and is intended to reflect the seafaring legacy and agricultural surroundings of the town
Irish Rail is set to spend €100,000 on a permanent sculpture at Oranmore Train Station, having commissioned German artist Ralf Sander and his partner architect Halina Sander for the project.
The sculpture will be titled The Birds of Fuarán Mór, the great spring, and is intended to reflect the seafaring legacy and agricultural surroundings of the town, which has transitioned from a historic fishing settlement to a busy commuter hub.
The artwork will be developed alongside a major infrastructure upgrade at the station, which include the construction of a new 185-metre platform, a double-track passing loop, and an underpass with dedicated cycling routes.
The sculpture will be installed ahead of the scheduled completion of the works at the station next summer, according to public procurement documents.
German-born Ralf Sander, 62, is a reader in Fine Art at Ulster University in Belfast. Halina Sander is an architect and structural engineer. They are based in Islandmagee in Co Antrim.
His previous works include a bronze statue of trade unionist and 1916 veteran Winifred Carney at Belfast City Hall, and Lady Bird Transformation in Busan, South Korea. He has also created a number of visual art installations in Galway.
They were awarded a €100,000 contract for the development of the Oranmore sculpture, according to public procurement documents published by Irish Rail on Thursday.
The two-stage procurement process originally invited initial expressions of interest by February 2026. Applicants were required to demonstrate an ability to deliver permanent outdoor structures capable of withstanding extreme weather and high winds.
Shortlisted candidates were offered a €700 development fee to produce scaled drawings, maquettes, and structural plans for a second-stage deadline at the end of April.
The wider Oranmore station upgrade is being co-funded by the Department of Transport through the National Transport Authority (NTA) and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage under the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund.
Once completed, the double-track passing loop will eliminate a single-track bottleneck on the Athenry-Galway line, allowing Irish Rail to double service frequency to 30-minute intervals in each direction as part of a €1 billion-plus national rail modernisation programme.
Under the terms of the brief, the €100,000 fee must cover all artist fees, materials, labour, production costs, travel, accommodation, engineering drawings, and final installation ahead of the station’s scheduled completion in summer 2027.