Princess Macha Statue Sculpture

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A bronze statue depicting a woman sitting on a seat with a dove on her left wrist and her right hand open to the viewer. Her right foot is further under her seat than the left and consequently the level of her right knee is lower. It is an open and welcoming pose. She wears a crown but has bare feet and is wrapped in a tightly fitting garment which is richly decorated particularly on her back where it forms a cloak to her elbows. The statue is a mannerist rather that a true representation of a woman which gives the composition a primitive feel. While the legs appear thin but lifelike, the torso is twice the height of reality and much thinner, the arms and hands much longer and the head very small in relation to the rest. Its width is also thinner than the normal proportion. The seat is open backed with cupped wings. It is supported off four legs divided into two richly decorated tapering panels. The panels are horizontally divided and the abstract decoration could be construed as hunting scenes or other descriptive material obscured by time. The statue sits on a bronze base on top of two bush hammered pink, rectangular, granite stones. The stones are surrounded by recently laid ‘Tegula’ paviors of similar colour edged in white ‘country kerb’ slabs.

The statue is presently located on the first traffic island met upon entering Altnagelvin Hospital grounds. The foundation stone - a pink granite boulder with a bronze inscription in eighth century uncial is nearby. A white granite pillar part of the ‘Derry-Donegal landscape sculpture’ of 1992 is also located on the island. The Princess Macha was originally sited close to the former entrance in a much more successful and impressive location.

T P Flanagan said of the Princess Macha figure - ‘The figure has great power and presence. Macha is both aloof and welcoming, legendary and Pagan, while still managing to hint at Christian undertones. A mental set in most of us expects her welcoming arms to cradle the Infant Prince of Peace, instead McWilliams perches a Picasso dove here’.

Historical information

The statue represents Princess Macha who according to tradition built the first hospital in Ireland at Eamhain Macha (now known as Navan Fort) outside Armagh city in 300 B C. The dove signifies St Columbkille “the dove of the church” who is reputed to have built a monastery which included the city’s first infirmary at Derry in 546 A D. The decoration includes oak leaves and acorns referring to the origin of the name Derry from ‘Doire’ which means oak grove. The statue was made by the artist : F E McWilliams (1909 - ) and commissioned by the hospital authority for the first hospital of the new post war welfare state. With the foundation stone it was originally located outside the main entrance but has been moved in the past year to the present location to facilitate a further expansion of the hospital.

Reference:

Dallat, Cahal ‘Altnagelvin’s Thirty Glorious Years’
Marle, Judy & Flanagagan, T P ‘F E McWilliams’

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

An emotive and mysterious object which attempts to invoke some of the majesty and clouded recollection of the legendary figure. The statue combines symbols associated with the history of hospitals resulting in a modern sculpture expressing the continuity of purpose. It is a key to understanding the spirit of the hospital which is reflected in the architecture of the hospital buildings.