Oliver Sheppard

Sheppard was born at Old Town, Cookstown, County Tyrone, to Simpson Sheppard, a sculptor, and Ellen White, of Ormond Quay, Dublin. Sheppard was based in Dublin for almost all of his life, having travelled widely across Europe. He lived with his wife Rosie and their children in Howth and later at 30 Pembroke Road in central Dublin. Rosie died in 1931.

His main influence was the Frenchman Édouard Lantéri who taught him at the Royal College of Art in London, and then at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art (DMSA) in Dublin (now the NCAD), where he later became a lecturer.

• Illustration — Memorial bust of Mangan. • 1901; imaginary statue of "Inis Fáil", seeing Ireland as an "island of destiny". • 1905; statue of a pikeman at Wexford, recalling the rebels in the 1798 rebellion. • 1908; Another pikeman statue at nearby Enniscorthy. • 1909; bust of the poet James Clarence Mangan in St Stephen's Green, Dublin. • 1911; The "Dying Cuchulain" is Sheppard's most iconic piece, inspired in part by the success of "Cuchulain of Muirthemne", the translation by Lady Gregory of most of the Tain saga that was published in 1902. • 1920; war memorials for the Irish solicitors and barristers who had died in the First World War (1914–18), which includes a bust of Major Willie Redmond. • 1922, bronze plaque in memory of Dr. James Little at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. • 1926; bust of his lifelong friend George Russell, best known as "Æ". • 1930; busts of John Joly at Trinity College Dublin and the Royal Dublin Society. • 1935; Aida, a bust now at the Crawford Gallery in Cork. • 1935; Installation of The "Dying Cuchulain" at the GPO, Dublin, that had been the rebels' headquarters in 1916, at the request of Éamon de Valera, President of the Executive Council (prime minister) at that time. The statue has had a continuing impact, and in 1966 a 50th anniversary commemoration special coin was struck with an image of it.

In the mid-1920s the first series of Irish Free State coinage was planned, and was finally launched in 1928. Sheppard was one of the designers short-listed but his designs were not accepted.

• Notes • Sources • History Ireland article on his main memorial statue in Wexford of the 1798 rebellion (1998) • Professor John Turpin biography • Online biography • John Turpin; 2-part article on Sheppard in the Dublin Historical Record (1995) vol.18, parts 1 & 2. ISSN 0012-6861.