Bronze ‘masterpiece’ created to honour former feis secretary Fr Kevin Mullan

The Fr Mullan Perpetual Memorial Award will be presented to the winner of the ‘Champion of Champions’ competition in honour of the late secretary and chair of the cultural institution who sadly passed away in May 2023.

The specially commissioned foot high figurine was made by Rory Harron who also recently saw his statute of Friar Seamus Hegarty, beheaded by the British Army in 1711 during the penal era in Ireland, unveiled at Ballynarry on the Inishowen shoreline a short distance from Buncrana.

The piece was modelled in the form of a male Irish dancer in a traditional Irish dancing costume and incorporated the use of photographs of Fr Kevin Mullan as a young man because he competed at Feis Dhoire Cholmcille as a dancer in his youth.

The statuette was formally inducted into the Derry Feis prize cabinet at the recent feis choral competitions when it was handed over by the sculptor to Joan Connaghan, sister of Fr Mullan and Feis Trophy Secretary Genevieve Sweeney.

Rory Harron said: “I was greatly honoured to be asked to make this piece. I had made awards in the past for various organisations, but this is the first commission of this kind that I have received.

“Although, I didn’t know Fr Mullan personally, of course I know about the connection between Derry Feis and the community that goes back decades and it’s part of the culture of the town. Everyone knows about the feis.

“It was a tricky piece to make. I had to use polymer clay because that’s best for miniature work and with a sculpture that small your using dentistry tools because it’s so precise, so I hope I captured some of the elements of Fr Mullan in the piece. But I am very proud and thankful to have involved and to have been asked to create it”.

The idea to honour Fr Mullan in this form came from current feis chairperson Ursula Clifford, who numbered the late cleric amongst her closest lifelong friends.

She said: “I have said many times before that I credit Fr Mullan with being amongst a band of very few people who saved Derry Feis from possibly disappearing during the Troubles of the 1970s.

“The work carried out by Fr Kevin in his involvement with the feis was immense. When the feis couldn’t take place for three years from 1972 onwards, a feis was incorporated into the then Bogside Festival.

"It was in fact basically Derry Feis by another name and had it not been for that, it’s very likely that our institution might now be just a historical footnote. What that meant was the spirit of the feis was kept alive in those years and it enabled it to return under its own name in 1975.

“Added to that, Fr Mullan was always wholly involved in the vast amount of administration and planning work that goes on in producing Derry Feis each year.

"He was completely hands on with regards to that as well as his own daily duties as a priest. But it was never a chore for him, it was a labour of love because he was a fully fledged fan of all things cultural, especially Irish dancing as he was a dancer himself in his younger days. That’s why I thought of the figurine of the male dancer.

“I couldn’t be more pleased with Rory Harron’s work. I met Rory for the first time recently at the unveiling at Fr Hegarty’s Rock and just like that work, what he has produced for the feis is spectacular and I cannot thank him enough for his work on it. As his work shows, he is an incredible young artist, and I think he’ll be known across the world as time passes”.

In keeping with Fr Kevin Mullan’s ecclesiastical life, the bronze figure has already been blessed by Fr Francis Bradley and will be presented to the dancing competition winner by Archbishop Eamon Martin. Both clerics are themselves former secretaries of Derry Feis.

And continuing with the clerical connection to the new award, the music for the ‘Champion of Champions’ competition will be played by Fr Gerard Mongan, Parish Priest of Long Tower and a noted traditional Irish musician.

Shauna Doherty, Irish Dancing Co-ordinator for Feis Dhoire Cholmcille said: “I had the pleasure of meeting Fr Mullan just once when he was chairperson. It was sad that his final year was my first year to be involved at the feis, so it’s been an honour to create the Fr Kevin Mullan Champion of Champions competition in his memory.

“All our dancers who win a place on the podium from first to fifth place in the championships from under nine to over eighteen will be eligible to compete in the competition. The competition itself will consist of a Treble Reel step about and there’s no entry fee involved.

“I think the statuette that’s been designed in Fr Kevin’s memory is a masterpiece and it’ll be the delight of all ‘feis mammies’ who can it take pride of place in the winner’s home year after year from now on”.

The ‘Champion of Champions’ competition will take place on the evening of Friday, April 25 at St Columb’s Hall.