A West Cork artist has created a series of deeply personal sculptures from the branches of a historic oak tree with direct links to the Battle of the Somme, and the results are stopping people in their tracks at this year’s Skibbereen Arts Festival.
Murrough O’Donovan, who grew up surrounded by the story of this remarkable tree, has spent months carefully working the wood into pieces that explore some of the heaviest themes a person can sit with. Resilience. Grief. Remembrance. Hope. The kind of feelings that don’t fit neatly into words but somehow translate perfectly into carved timber.
The tree itself carries serious history. The family’s Somme oak has stood as a living connection to one of the bloodiest battles of the First World War, a conflict that tore through a generation of young men from Ireland and across Europe. When branches became available, O’Donovan saw not just raw material but an opportunity to let the wood speak for itself.
Working with timber that carries that kind of weight is no small thing. Every cut and curve in the sculptures carries the story of the tree forward, turning something rooted in loss into something people can stand in front of and feel. That tension between grief and hope runs right through the collection, and it is clearly landing with festival visitors.
Skibbereen Arts Festival has built a strong reputation for showcasing work that means something, and O’Donovan’s sculptures fit that brief perfectly. The festival draws crowds to West Cork every year and gives local and national artists a platform to show work that might not find a home in more commercial gallery settings. Thought-provoking, community-rooted art is very much the point.
For O’Donovan, the project is personal in a way that goes beyond craft. Bringing his family’s connection to the Somme into a public space through sculpture is an act of remembrance in itself, but it also opens the conversation up to anyone who stands in front of the work. You do not need to know the history of the tree to feel something. The pieces carry their meaning in the grain.
The Somme, fought in the summer and autumn of 1916, resulted in over a million casualties across both sides. For Irish families, the battle holds a complicated place in history, with thousands of Irish soldiers fighting under the British flag at a time when the country was in the middle of its own push for independence. That layered history adds another dimension to what O’Donovan has created.
Using natural materials to explore memory and loss is a tradition with deep roots in Irish art, but grounding it in a specific family story and a specific piece of living history gives this work something extra. The oak tree lived through a century of change. Now its branches are being shaped into something that asks people to slow down and think.
The sculptures are on show as part of the wider Skibbereen Arts Festival programme, which brings together visual art, music, performance and community events across the town. West Cork has become one of the most vibrant creative corners of the country, and festivals like this one are a big part of why artists choose to live and work there.
For anyone in the area, O’Donovan’s work is well worth seeking out. It is the kind of thing that stays with you after you leave the room.