World
Handball Champion Statue
Sculpture of Irish Handballer Joey Maher
Sports Sculpture Commission by
the Joey Maher Sculpture Committee
Drogheda, Ireland - Unveiling Ceremony
Public Artwork Commission
for Drogheda: Joey Maher Sculpture
Unveiling
ceremony 25 October,
2008
Commissioned 3 January 2008, this sculpture of World
Handball Champion Joey Maher was unveiled on the bank of the River
Boyne on 25 October 2008.
Laury Dizengremel
as the lead artist, worked on this sports sculpture commission with her
usual
team of fellow sculptors Shen Xiaonan and Zhang Yaxi, in their
Chongqing sculpture studio in China. (All 3 of their signature-initials
feature on the sculpture itself).
For the unveiling, as usual an emotional moment, the sculptor
was accompanied by her father Jean-Pierre
Dizengremel a former town councillor of Saint-Saens, now living in
Dieppe, Normandy, France on this
return visit to Drogheda in Ireland following their visit there in
January when she accepted the commission. JP greatly enjoyed meeting
all participants of the Joey Maher public sculpture commission. Also
accompanying Laury for the October 2008 unveiling ceremony were her
French agent Anne Bastid and Helena Tupholme, an English friend.
Below - an image of Joey Maher the legendary Irish handballer and Laury
together just before the statue is unveiled (he had cheated by seeing
it in its shipping crate a few days before)....
RTE
Newsreader Eileen Dunne unveiled
the sculpture with a short speech,
after opening speeches by the Committee's chairman Frank Godfrey, as
well as the
President of the Irish Handball Association, the sculptor Laury
Dizengremel, the Mayor of Drogheda Frank Maher and a blessing by a
local priest.
The weather was sunny both the day before and the day after the
unveiling.... but it rained on the day itself. This was met with good
hunour by all attending as being typically Irish - typically County
Louth - typically Drogheda!
One of Drogheda's Cathlolic priests read a blessing and doused the
sculpture with Holy Water.
First it was former
councillor Frank Godfrey, the chairman of the Joey
Maher Sculpture Committee, who gave his comments to a TV crew (that
had spent the morning filming Joey Maher at his home and then at his
first handball court on Millmount in Drogheda).
Later, when the streets
had cleared again, it was Laury's turn to be interviewed for the same
national TV programme (RTE - Ireland).
Facing the River Boyne in Drogheda - this public artwork attracted a
lot of passerby on the unveiling day and daily draws attention from the
many visitors to the south side of the city of Drogheda, near Scotch
Hall, the Millennium Bridge and the nearby "D" Hotel.
In her opening speech, Laury commented on the value of collecting
public artwork that inspires young people who look up to sporting
heroes such as handballer Joey Maher and the earlier commission
featuring former Olympic Boxing champion Tony "Socks" Byrne.
See articles
in the Drogheda Leader here...
For further info
(names of members of the Joey Maher Sculpture Committee and other
details), and images
of the Joey Maher lifesize sculpture at clay stage see earlier
press release page about the Joey Maher sports sculpture commission.
Photo credits on this page:
Laury Dizengremel, Jean-Pierre Dizengremel (the sculptor's father) and
Helena Tupholme
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