Bisbee daily review., 1909-06-13

"A statue to Irish for the Irish!" Such is really the one and only great fault the Irish of the United States have to find with the design for a memorial statue to the memory of Fighting Jack Barry. recently ox- ecuted by the distinguished young Irish sculptor, Andrew O'Connor. jr. To be specific as to their objec- ton. it seems that the Irish and par ticularly that part of the Irish Amer ica belonging to the Ancient Order of Hibernians, believes that Mir. O'Con- nor's design does not have enough of the spirit of the Irish in America, and they have also strenuously objected to a frieze on the proposed statue which has a number of nude figures on it these figures being representa-, tions of ancient Irishmen.
 The government authorities at Washington have an elaborate scheme of building memorials to diff. l ferent heroes in American history who were of foreign birth. The scheme is to have sculptors of the present day | enter into a competition for the de | signing of these monuments, the pro l vision being made that the sculptor must be of the nationality Of the par | ticular hero for wnom he is to de. sign memorial
 Thus, ia the case of Kosciusko, the Polish engineer, Polish sculptors in all parts of Europe and America were | invited to submit designs for his me morial When it was proposed to honor Commodore Barry. similar competi' ! ton was inaugurated, of which An. drew O'Connor won the honor of be. | ing the successful designer
 The design which won him this dis. l tinction over all the sculptors of Irish | lineage in the world, comes close to being a triumph of the sculptor's art The model is s feet long. and com pines the useful and artistic work oi !, art.
 | The project for having a statue iI
 memory of Commodore Barry origi
 mated with the Irish societies of the
 United States after the memorial tC
 Kosciusko had been erected. It had to be carried out under the superis ion of the War Department, whose head at that time was William H. Taft The memorial was to cost $50.00o ana | $1 900 paid for the prize design. The
 department was pleased with Mir
 O'Connor's design, and fully ap
 proved it.
 A brief description of the desigr
 would be as follows:
 It may be said to have three con
 structions. viz. the pedestal, thu i frieze. and the statue. The pedesta i was to be made of Tennessee marble
 the inclosure of fountain basin be ing made of Indiana limestone, an(
 the base of the inciosure to be made
 of granite. At either end of the de
 sign is a sculpture group. At tht east end of this is seated figure
 symboliZing Erin, about whom clint
 the fogs of her surrounding sea ant
 the yapors of ancient tradition. A
 the other end emigrants led by {
 youth. whose shaded eyes are strain ing eagerly for the first sight of the
 promised land, and this symboliZes tht
 exodus of the children of Erin to tht
 land of liberty. The figure of al eagle at each end serves to harmoniZ'
 the groups of statuary.
 The frieze which ornaments thu
 front face of the pedestal is probabl.
 what causes the Irish society to re feet the design. The frieze is in ba!
 relief. It faithfully portrays Ire
 lands early history. but the obtectio,
 of the Order of Hibernians has beel
 that they did not like to see their an
 cestors represented in the nude, an'
 also that the frieze is not emblem
 atical enough of the true Irish-Amel
 ican.
 It would take pages and pages c
 history to tell the simple, thrillin