TWO Macroom artists whose murals reflect the social history of the town have recently completed another one to remember the town’s revered Mountain Dew Festival.
Cormac Shiel’s and Denis O’Reardon’s latest incarnation featuring Rory Gallagher – who headlined Ireland’s very first open-air rock festival in 1977 – adorns the gable wall of Ray Cronin’s house in the town and it’s already garnering praise from both locals and passers-by.
The duo are well known for their colourful murals dotted around the town, which have been supported by Cork County Council and local businesses. They include an impressive work inside the castle grounds and this is now their sixth mural to date.
Speaking to The Southern Star, Cormac said both he and Denis attended that very festival and they were keen to do something to remember the days of the event which put Macroom on the map.
‘It’s coming up to its 50th anniversary and all our murals are about social events in the town so this is very appropriate. We got into the archives in the City Library and got the page it was published on. We then re-organised it and did it in the style of ‘The Cork Examiner’ who gave us permission to use it and we received the original photos too,’ said Cormac.
‘We did a miniature of the work and then photographed it so we can worked off it then on the wall and we only use paint and not spray cans and we did this work ourselves. It took us about three weeks to complete it and there’s a lot of detail in it,
As both attended that very festival in their late teens, Cormac has fond memories of the concert.
‘There was a national amphitheatre above the GAA pitch on the castle grounds and we watched Rory Gallagher from there and fair play to the organising committee who wanted to raise the profile of the town in the late 1970s.’
The pair are already planning their next mural for the gable wall an old school in Clondrohid and have completed drawings for this. In the meantime, they hope to officially launch the Macroom mural soon and plan to place a commemorative plague there remembering all those involved in bringing the Mountain Dew Festival to Macroom.
Their infamous ‘Murphy’s’ mural on Castle Street was removed in 2019 due to new rules on alcohol advertising in proximity to schools, playgrounds and creches.
