In Meakstown, a push for a public sculpture to give the area a bit more of an identity

Along Melville Road, a two-lane street passing through gated blocks of apartments and a small shopping complex in Meakstown, are patches of land that residents have adopted, taking it upon themselves to keep them tidy.

But there is one spot that remains derelict. A large triangle of land, with two pylons and tall weeds, between a bar, The Deputy Mayor, and the Jamestown UPS customer centre, a large warehouse for couriers.

Yvonne Gregg has adopted this one too, she says. And it is where she wants to see Fingal County Council put in a sculpture.

She reached out to local Fianna Fáil Councillor JK Onwumereh about the sculpture a few months ago, she says, gesturing at the derelict site, and asked: “would he ask Fingal to do something with this?”

It’s needed to give Meakstown a sense of identity, says Gregg, who volunteers with Meakstown Tidy Town, “The owner of the Deputy Mayor Bar is in agreement with the idea as well.”

At an October meeting of the Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart/Castleknock/Ongar Area Committee, Onwumereh asked council officials whether it would be possible to put in a sculpture there. “This is a community that feels abandoned,” he said.

“What is being sought here is only a small piece. It’s not something … we’re not looking at a huge capital-intensive project. It’s only a small sculpture, just to give an identity to the Meakstown area,” said Onwumereh.

In a written response, Declan Power, a senior council executive officer, said that in light of other similar requests, the community and culture strategic policy committee was looking at developing a fund for this kind of thing, with clear criteria, for community groups to apply to.

What could represent Meakstown?

Meakstown sits beside Finglas, right on the border of the Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council areas. People say it causes confusion, said Gregg. “When you say ‘Meakstown’, a lot of people ask, ‘Where’s that?’”

It actually falls within Fingal. “But the rest of Finglas would deal directly with Dublin City Council,” she says.

Her idea is that the sculpture will make the place more recognizable. “The sculpture will add to the identity,” she said. “Any type of sculpture brings a bit of culture, a bit of recognition.”

People strolling near the proposed site recently largely agreed.

“I think the area gets referred to as Finglas a lot even though we’re kind of on the border of it,” said Keith Doran, another resident of the area, as he headed home from the grocery store through the nearby Charlestown Road.

“I think the statue might give it a nice sense of identity and distinguish it a little better,” he said.

Said Niamh Mooney, a mother of two babies, who was walking through Lanesborough Road: “It would be nice, but I am worried it might get destroyed, you know.”

Gregg says her idea for the sculpture was inspired by “The Butterflies”, a stone artwork by artist Mark Feeley in the Botanic Gardens.

“A butterfly would represent a new beginning, a new flourishing. We are starting to flourish,” she said. She highlighted the new Meakstown community centre that is being built.

Gregg had shown Onwumereh a picture of the artwork, she says, and shared the artist’s details, hoping for something similar on her adopted patch.

Onwumereh, the Fianna Fáil councillor, said he would be open to different ideas as well.

Some have said they want a beautiful butterfly, he says. “So let’s say, a butterfly or a bird, or it could be something that’s a leaf, a very big leaf or a flower.”

But something that relates to biodiversity, he says. “The area around that could be done up in such a way that people can relax around that.”

Where the sculpture could go is also still a question to be settled with the community, he said. “We are now hoping that the community tells us where they want the structure.”

How to pay for it?

Onwumereh says he has spoken to officials in the Fingal County Council’s public arts department, so the conversation has started. “It’s now a matter of working with the Fingal council to get the funding.”

At the meeting, Power, the senior executive officer at the council, ran through the current possible funding streams and the criteria for them.

For the sculpture in Meakstown, he suggested that the Per Cent for Arts scheme might be suitable.

The council’s website says that under that scheme, “1% of the cost of any publicly funded capital, infrastructural and building development can be allocated to the commissioning of a work of art”.

Asking for public artworks is a common issue across the county, said Power. “We’re very familiar with it and we are looking to put in place a sustainable situation that will deliver not just for Meakstown but for all locations across the county.”

Caroline Cowley, the public arts coordinator for Fingal County Council, said later that the council sees a significant opportunity for private investment to fund public art projects locally.

At the moment, private developments of more than 100 homes or commercial ones larger than 2000sqm must agree with the co-operation of the Arts Office to commission a piece of public art for each requested site, she said in an email.  “Fingal County Council, support this process by curating artists in partnership with developers and guiding the process from costing, installation and contracts.”

But since 2017 the council has seen an increase in conditions for private and commercial developments where the public artwork – which is of exceptionally high quality – ends up in business and logistics parks, said Cowley.

“We have identified that, in the case of these private commercial developments, a contribution to a fund for public art would allow us to work more strategically across Fingal and use this as an opportunity to connect with communities,” she said.

“The Arts Office are working with the planning department to set up the most suitable mechanism to put such a programme in place and we hope that we will have more news to share in 2024,” said Cowley.