BY SARAH CANTY
A RECENT memorial tour of community sculptures took a heart-warming turn when Sarah Webb, oldest and closest friend to the late artist Susan O’Toole, organised a retrospective exhibition to celebrate Susan’s life and work.
Remembering Susan.
Assembling the exhibition from artwork and photographs, left in Susan’s house and from friends, was a labour of love for Sarah. ‘I said at her funeral there should be a celebration of her work and extraordinary life,’ she said.
More than anything, she wished to highlight the public art, so she organised a bus tour in early May which proved joyfully nostalgic and ended with a cheerful coincidence.
Jim Fuller speaking with director of nursing at Schull Community Hospital ,Roisin Walsh.
The small tour group travelled from Ballydehob to Crookhaven, stopping along the way to pose with the Mermaid under 12-Arch Bridge, the Dancer and Fiddler at the old dance platform in Lowertown, the Harrington Memorial in honour of the Fenian Michael Harrington in Goleen, and the Marconi, in memory of the pioneer of radio communications, at Galley Cove. During lunch the group listened to a 1996 RTÉ Radio interview with Susan about her mermaid in Ballydehob. In the interview she thanked retired farmer Jim Fuller for repairing her chisels as they had become blunted from the old nails embedded deep in the old chestnut tree trunk she was carving.
It was then that one of the group revealed that Jim was still very much alive, well, and being looked after in Schull Community Hospital, exactly where the group had planned to visit on their way back east. Susan’s last days were spent there, and her Stone Head had been gifted by her friends to the hospital in thanks for their excellent care. Upon arrival, Sarah told the director of nursing about the radio interview. To everyone’s delight Jim joined the group in the garden where they replayed the recording for him.
He spoke about the problem he had when sharpening her tools. When he volunteered for the task, he assumed she was using flat bladed chisels, but they were sculptor’s gouges with a curved blade and much trickier to grind. He found a way to get the job done and she was able to carry on carving.
Regarding mermaids, Jim shared with the group the old saying: ‘Not Enough Fish to Fry – Not Enough Women to Love.’
Susan O’Toole’s retrospective exhibition in Ballydehob Arts Museum is open to visitors during the Ballydehob Maritime and Folk Festival from June 14th to 16th, and throughout the summer when the tourist office is open.
