AstraZeneca Archives - SCULPTURE IN CONTEXT 2023 AND LATER

PATRICK KAVANAGH SCULPTURE

I never noticed the associated plaque before. It states that this sculpture was presented to the people of Dublin by Zeneza and that surprised as I was unaware of that entity. I will discuss this in more detail below.

When I was young I went to school on Leeson street and we were not allowed to visit Wilton Terrace after 5PM as it was a very busy red light area at night. In a way it was surreal … during the day the area was home to upmarket offices but at night it was populated by streetwalkers and their clients.

This life sized statue of Patrick Kavanagh sitting on one side of a park bench is by John Coll and it was unveiled in June 1991. It is situated on the north bank of the Grand Canal across from Mespil Road.

Previously, I incorrectly [a typo] described it as being on Mespil Road when it is, in fact, at Wilton Terrace. I have recently noticed that a number of other accounts describe it as being on Mespil Road … I hope that I am not responsible for such errors.

Patrick Kavanagh (21 October 1904 – 30 November 1967) was an Irish poet and novelist. His best-known works include the novel Tarry Flynn, and the poems “On Raglan Road” and “The Great Hunger”. He is known for his accounts of Irish life through reference to the everyday and commonplace. He also played as a goalkeeper for his local Gaelic football club.

John Coll is one of Ireland’s most prominent figurative sculptors. He has sculpted many works of national importance including monuments to the poet Patrick Kavanagh and the writer Brendan Behan on the Dublin canals. Other large-scale projects include a monument to Countess Markievicz in Rathcormac, Co Sligo and locally a life-size portrait of the racehorse “Bobby-Jo” in Mountbellew, Co Galway.

Zeneca (officially Zeneca Group PLC) was a British multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It was formed in June 1993 by the demerger of the pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals businesses of Imperial Chemical Industries into a separate company listed on the London Stock Exchange.

In 1999, Zeneca and the Sweden-based pharmaceutical company Astra AB merged to form AstraZeneca plc.

Zeneca’s largest therapeutic area was oncology, in which its key products included Casodex, Nolvadex and Zoladex. Other key products included heart drug Tenormin.

“Zeneca” was an invented name created by the branding consultancy Interbrand. Interbrand had been instructed to find a name which began with a letter from either the top or bottom of the alphabet and was phonetically memorable, of no more than three syllables and did not have an offensive meaning in any language.