A copy of the magnificent horse of Gough returned to Dublin in a surprising way 20 years later. Misneach, Irish for courage, in Ballymun (Dublin), is an equestrian sculpture by John Byrne (2010) showing a modern young female Dubliner on top of a majestic horse. The sculpture is an interesting work of art for a number of reasons. The sculpture has its roots in a traditional equestrian sculpture, but instead of the usual hero, it shows a teenage girl as the rider of the horse, a combination of past and future. The sculpture is also a statement. Everyday people can be equally heroes as can celebrated public figures. The making of this sculpture was also a combination of the future and the past; traditional skills were combined with the use of state-of-the-art technology. The mould of the horse was made in situ in the grounds of Chillingham castle in the UK from Foley’s Gough statue. This mould was then combined with a computer-generated mould of a 17-year-old girl selected as the rider, scanned by a 3D laser scanner and cast in bronze.
photographer unknown
