Cliodhna Cussen obituary: Sculptor and champion of Irish language and culture

Born: September 18, 1932

Died: August 2, 2022

The acclaimed sculptor, author and illustrator, Cliodhna Cussen has died in her 90th year. Best known for her large stone sculptures in both urban and rural locations around Ireland, Cussen was also a champion of Irish language and culture.

Her most striking pieces include a statute of St Patrick at the pilgrimage site in Máméan in Connemara and the Dún an Óir sculpture at Ard na Caithne (known in English as Smerwick) on the Dingle peninsula.

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She also created prominent pieces of public art in Dublin. These include the Long Stone replica at the intersection between Pearse and College Streets in Dublin. Erected in 1986, it marks the site of an original Viking long stone put there to prevent their longships from running aground. She carved An Gallán Gréine do James Joyce [the Sun Pillar for James Joyce] and An Clog Gréine [the Sun Dial] in Sandymount and Who Made the World sculpture outside the Herbert Park Hotel in Ballsbridge.

One of seven children born to solicitor, Robert Cussen and his wife, Kathleen (nee McCartan) in Newcastle West, County Limerick, she was educated at the Laurel Hill Convent secondary school in Limerick City. From there, she went to study history at University College Dublin (UCD), completing a master’s degree in history and working as a tutor there for a time. She qualified as a solicitor but rather than practise law, she became an artist, having studied at the National College of Art [now the National College of Art and Design] while at UCD. Initially specialising in wood carving, she won a scholarship to study in Florence in 1955.

Back in Ireland, she took part in the Institute of the Sculptors of Ireland exhibitions in 1955 and 1956. She also had her first solo exhibition of works in various media including metal, wood, ceramic and plaster at the Little Theatre at Brown Thomas in Grafton Street, Dublin in 1959. A joint exhibition with her sister Ruth Cussen, a painter, followed at the same venue in 1961.

Realising that religious art would provide the best possibility for commissioned work, Cussen participated in the Sacred Art Exhibition and the Exhibition of Church Art in 1962. She also showed in the Independent Artists exhibitions from 1964 onwards.

In 1960, she married Pádraig Oliver Ó Snodaigh, who she had met while they were both tutors of history at UCD. The couple lived for many years in Sandymount where they brought up their six sons – including the Sinn Féin TD, Aengus Ó Snodaigh and Colm, Rónán and Rossa from Celtic rock band Kíla – through the Irish language. They later moved to live in Howth.

Cussen was chairwoman of the Independent Artists Group in the 1970s and a member of its sculpture group which held workshops in various parts of the country. In 1978, she was the only woman to participate in a symposium led by Japanese American sculptor Minoru Niizuma in Roe and O’Neill’s quarry in Ballyedmondduff, Co Dublin. This gave her the opportunity to work on large-scale stone carvings at a time when women weren’t encouraged to be stone carvers.

Strong advocate

Cussen was a strong advocate of the State’s adoption of the Per Cent for Art Scheme, which when first introduced in the late 1970s, stipulated that 1 per cent of the cost of any publicly funded infrastructural programme be allocated to the commissioning of a work of art.

In 1980, she was a founding member of the Sculptor Society of Ireland, a voluntary group which gave greater prominence to work of sculptors in Ireland. And she was a founding member of Sculpture in Context exhibitions, which became a celebrated outdoor sculpture exhibition in various venues in Dublin.

Through the Dublin Art foundry, Cussen became skilled in bronze casting, which she incorporated into her work. In the 1980s, she had one-person shows in the Lincoln Gallery in Dublin and at the Stone Art Gallery in Spiddal, Co Galway. And latterly, she was involved in Umha Aois, a project between artists and archaeologists seeking to rediscover Bronze Age casting techniques.

Like her husband, Cussen had a strong commitment to the Irish language and culture and ran an Irish language group on Monday nights in Conradh na Gaeilge on Harcourt Street, Dublin. She wrote and illustrated several books on Irish folklore for children and adult learners of Irish. Later in life, she published three collections of poetry in Irish. Her novel, An Eochair (The Key), published by Coiscéim in 2014, is a fictional account of the life of Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill and her relationship with Art Ó Laoghaire, the author of Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire, one of the great laments in Irish literature.

‘She drew me in with her twinkling eyes, which were a gateway to a profound knowledge bank of everything to do with carving, sculpture and art’

Sligo-based sculptor Eileen McDonagh said that Cussen was matriarchal in her ways and that the Irish language permeated everything she did. “She worked doggedly in quarries in all weathers. She was intuitive in her work. She didn’t over-think things and her sculptures reflected her interest in Irish mythology and Celtic folklore.”

Limerick based sculptor and stone carver Ruairi Dennison from Abbeyfeale, the neighbouring town of Cussen’s childhood home, says that she was an excellent stone carver with rare insight and intelligence. “I found her intellectually captivating. She drew me in with her twinkling eyes, which were a gateway to a profound knowledge bank of everything to do with carving, sculpture and art,” says Dennison.

Although petite in stature, Cussen was a force of nature with her own personal style often immaculately turned out in hand-stitched clothing of vibrant colours. Her lifelong efforts to bring greater prominence to women in everything she did has led to calls for a scholarship fund for female artists to be created in her memory.

Cliodhna Cussen is survived by her husband, Pádraig Ó Snodaigh, sons Fergus, Aengus, Colm, Cormac, Rónán and Rossa, her sisters, Ruth and Pan, her brothers, Bobby and John, and her 19 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by her sisters, Ursula and Lorna.