The Lamb

The Dingle Community Lamb May 2024

The Feile na Bealtaine arts festival hosted many wonderful events this year. Among them was Ben's project for the local community and visitors to Dingle where he invited everyone to join him in creating a single sculpture in stone over the weekend. We were blessed with fine weather and many turned up to help Ben find the Lamb in the stone. Even the youngest (being just 3) was able to add her mark in stone by holding the hammer with both hands while Ben held the chisel.

The number of people joining in and having a go at stone carving was amazing as all day Ben was instructing and guiding whole families, one person at a time. The age range was 3 to 80 + and everyone who came to the red tent was able to carve a little bit and get a feel for what it is like to be a carver of stone.

"I have done many public carving sessions over the past 20 years but this was by far the most joyful of them all. Everyone I helped seemed to get the hang of things pretty quickly and made their own contribution to this Community sculpture. It has been a tiring couple of days but it has also been so much fun to see the enthusiasm for one of the most ancient of the Arts. It really was a privilege to share my passion for stone with so many...i think we had over 150 taking part so this piece really is a unique work in stone, created by many hands".

Ben Dearnley

The short video shows what was going on during the final half hour where some of the younger carvers came to help finish things off, and they did a fantastic job too. You really do get a feel of the excitement and the high energy which they brought to the project. I expect they will feel proud of having helped make this public sculpture and rightly so as it has been great fun for all.

The finished sculpture 'The Community Lamb' will be placed within An Diseart Gardens for everyone to enjoy for many years to come and those who helped will be able to point out to family and friends the part they played in its creation.

Thanks to the Feile committee and An Diseart for the opportunity to make this event happen and to all those who took part, from Canada, to the USA, to France to Dingle to Dublin to the UK  to Germany...this project really captured something of the cosmopolitan nature of this Art festival, right here on the west coast of Kerry.