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O'Shea and Whelan was an Irish family practice of stonemasons and sculptors from
Ballyhooly Ballyhooly ()Logainm.ie, an Irish placenames databaseBaile Átha hÚllaVerified 2019-11-07. is a small village in north County Cork situated along the N72 between Castletownroche and Fermoy. Ballyhooly is home to two pubs, a church, community ...
in
County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns a ...
. They were notable for their involvement in Ruskinian
gothic architecture Gothic architecture (or pointed architecture) is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It ...
in the mid-19th century.


Practice

The practice comprised the brothers James and John O'Shea, along with their nephew Edward Whelan. James and John were the sons of a craftsman who came to Cork to work on the construction of Convamore House, and who remained and set up a workshop in nearby Ballyhooly village. After his death the workshop was inherited by James and John, and is often referred to as "The O'Shea Brothers". However Whelan's role in the firm was equally significant. Nevertheless, James O'Shea was the most notable of the family. In addition to his work as an architectural mason he exhibited fine art sculptures in the classical style. The O'Sheas initially achieved notability for their floral carvings and grotesqueries on buildings in Dublin, in particular at
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
and at the
Kildare Street Club The Kildare Street Club is a historical member's club in Dublin, Ireland, at the heart of the Anglo-Irish Protestant Ascendancy. The Club remained in Kildare Street between 1782 and 1977, when it merged with the Dublin University Club to become ...
, including the famous window piece showing the club members as monkeys playing billiards.


Work with Ruskin

At the time
John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...
was seeking to revive lively freehand stone carving of the kind typical of medieval Gothic architecture. The architects
Thomas Newenham Deane Sir Thomas Newenham Deane (1828 – 8 November 1899) was an Irish architect, the son of Sir Thomas Deane and Eliza Newenham, and the father of Sir Thomas Manly Deane. His father and son were also architects. Works attributed to Thomas Newen ...
and
Benjamin Woodward Benjamin Woodward (16 November 1816 – 15 May 1861) was an Irish architect who, in partnership with Sir Thomas Newenham Deane, designed a number of buildings in Dublin, Cork and Oxford. Life Woodward was born in Tullamore, County Offaly, Ire ...
were proposing to work with Ruskin on the design of the new
Oxford University Museum of Natural History The Oxford University Museum of Natural History, sometimes known simply as the Oxford University Museum or OUMNH, is a museum displaying many of the University of Oxford's natural history specimens, located on Parks Road in Oxford, England. It a ...
. Woodward, who had worked with them in Dublin, brought in the O'Sheas as the best qualified carvers for the job. The O'Sheas worked in tandem with Ruskin and the architects to produce a series of elaborate carvings of plant and animal forms. Each was a unique and individual design. James O'Shea also attempted to establish himself as a fine artist with Ruskin's help, though Ruskin eventually declared himself "disappointed" with the carver's work. Ruskin later claimed that "the delight in the freedom and power which would have been the elements of all health to a trained workman were destruction to him...I hoped he would find his way in time, but hoped, as so often, in vain." Further problems arose when the Convocation of the university refused to pay for more carvings, which had largely been funded by public subscriptions. When the O'Sheas offered to work without pay, some members of Convocation accused them of "defacing" the building with unauthorised work. According to
Henry Acland Sir Henry Wentworth Dyke Acland, 1st Baronet, (23 August 181516 October 1900) was an English physician and educator. Life Henry Acland was born in Killerton, Exeter, the fourth son of Sir Thomas Acland and Lydia Elizabeth Hoare, and educate ...
, the professor who liaised with Ruskin, James O'Shea proceeded to carve caricatures of members of Convocation on the entrance of the building in the form of parrots and owls. Acland forced him to remove the heads, which remain defaced to this day.Geoffrey Tyack, ''Oxford: An Architectural Guide'', p. 219


Other projects

The O'Sheas also worked on several other projects. One of the O'Sheas carved statues for St Mary's church in Rhyl, Wales. One also worked for the architect J.F. Bentley, who described his attitude as "unbearable".Frederick O'Dwyer, ''The Architecture of Deane and Woodward'', p.405 Thomas Deane later employed Whelan to work in Oxford on the Meadow Building and at the Fleet Street Crown Life Office.
Thomas Woolner Thomas Woolner (17 December 1825 – 7 October 1892) was an English sculptor and poet who was one of the founder-members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was the only sculptor among the original members. After participating in the found ...
, a sculptor also involved in the Oxford project, employed James O'Shea to create carvings for his home. The O'Sheas and Whelan went on to work with Woolner and the architect Alfred Waterhouse in the design of the
Manchester assize courts The Manchester Assize Courts was a building housing law courts on Great Ducie Street in the Strangeways district of Manchester, England. It was tall and from 1864 to 1877 the tallest building in Manchester. Widely admired, it has been referred to ...
, producing a series of capitals depicting gruesome forms of punishment in history. Though the original building was demolished following bomb damage in World War Two, the carvings survive in the replacement building. James O'Shea returned to Ireland to work in
Callan Callan is a given name and surname of Irish and Scottish origin. It can derive from Ó Cathaláin, meaning ''descendant of Cathalán''. Callan can also be an Anglicized form of the Gaelic Mac Allin or Mac Callin. Notable people with the name includ ...
as a monumental sculptor, specialising in Celtic crosses and establishing a new firm with his son Edward. A fine example of this work is the Celtic cross in memory of the children's author
Talbot Baines Reed Talbot Baines Reed (3 April 1852 – 28 November 1893) was an English writer of young adult fiction, boys' fiction who established a genre of school story, school stories that endured into the mid-20th century. Among his best-known work is ' ...
, which stands at Abney Park Cemetery in Stoke Newington,
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
.


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External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:OShea and Whelan Irish sculptors Masonry British architectural sculptors Victorian era People of the Victorian era 19th-century sculptors