Lough Boora Parklands

An old motionless Rustin train & Creel type wagons celebrating the machinery and people who once worked on them over the years.

Sculpture Concept

by sculptor: Mike Bulfin

"Having grown up in the area, my abiding memory is of the machines that Bord na Móna brought in to work the bogs: the ditchers, ridgers and trains. Looking at a line of peat wagons, flat on the horizon, I decided to take this image and commemorate it by translating it into a sculptural context - using the Bord na Móna trains and wagons in a different plane - hence the introduction of the "rainbow" curve".

"To put emphasis on the train going up into the sky, ditcher wheels were introduced to form tunnels in the supporting mound so the light can be seen through it. The engine is a ‘Rustin’, one of the oldest models and the wagons are of the open creel type, reminiscent of the creels used to carry turf on horse or donkey. This piece is a celebration of the Bord na Móna machines and the men who operated them".

Sculptor: Michael Bulfin

Michael Bulfin was born in Birr, county Offaly, and graduated in Environmental Science from Yale University.

He was a founder of the Projects Arts Centre in Dublin, and was, for seven years, Chairman of the Sculptors Society of Ireland. He has exhibited widely in Ireland, participating in major exhibitions in the seventies and eighties, as well as solo exhibitions.

He has also participated in numerous international exhibitions and symposia in the United States, Paris, London, Liverpool and Copenhagen. Recent work includes Echoes of the Past-Traces of the Future, a 100-meter long drawing in the landscape consisting of three low embankments that winds into a spiral form.

Michael is a member of Aosdana and his work features in prominent and prestigious venues and collections in Ireland and abroad. In the course of a distinguished career he has moved from creating minimalist objects in steel to more ‘site specific’ work in earth and stone.