the piece was unveiled by Jack Maher, the oldest serving member of the St Vincent de Paul Society in Thurles.

photo showing philip balancing the piece of sculpture on his head, with the aid of seamus' little finger

The Nationwide programme was aired on Monday evening and the whole community was tuned in to see Holycross on screen. The entire village looked great, we're looking at it all with new eyes since. Our slot was quite short, but we think the place looked pretty good and it really was fantastic advertising. We've had a good few enquiries and a few definite bookings on the strength of it so it's all good. Our girls made an appearance in the bit on the school so there was great excitement here, half of the family on tv in one go! Once that was over we could concentrate on getting the combat poverty piece of sculpture finished and in place. The candle was burned at both ends doing this, but it finally got finished and with the help of extended family and a few neighbours it was transported, with the greatest of care, to it's final resting place in Liberty Square, Thurles. This happened in the (very) small hours of Friday morning. The piece was unveiled this afternoon, a beautiful autumn day, and looked great with the polished granite glistening in the sunlight. There was a good turnout, plenty of photos taken, so we'll have to get some of our more computer literate friends to upload a photo. Just time for a quick sigh of relief to have that done, and then it's full steam ahead on the exhibition pieces...

We'll eventually get the hang of this blogging thing... Well, our Nationwide slot is in the can. Last Tuesday was a lovely sunny day which really improves the appearance of everything, so hopefully the place will look ok on tv. We had four very enthusiastic stone carvers here on the day, hammering away and Philip was interviewed by Michael Ryan. The crew was here for about an hour and a half and this will be condensed into a few minutes of airtime, which will be great advertising for us. We're already getting in the popcorn in anticipation, so tune in Monday evening, 12th Oct at 7pm.
Our evening classes started last Monday evening and we had a great crowd, so much so we've decided to split the group in two and run another class on Tuesdays. It always amazes us that no matter how many people we have in a stone carving workshop, no two people have the same idea for a piece. We're tossing around the idea of having an exhibition here at the end of the evening classes, maybe a Sunday afternoon in early December, an "end-of-term" show.
Philip is putting the finishing touches to his Combat Poverty piece. This is a granite piece which is going to be placed in Liberty Square, Thurles and unveiled on Saturday 17th October, world Poverty Awareness Day. The piece was commissioned by Thurles Active Community Development. Hopefully I'll be able to get a picture of it onto the blog.
That's all for now, get in contact with us if you have anything to add.