From the RTÉ Archives

On Sunday August 9th 1987, the more than 700 year-old presence of the Dominican Order in Tralee was commemorated with an open-air Mass in Tralee Town Square, followed by the unveiling of the prominent Dominican Memorial on the site of the original medieval Holy Cross Abbey.

Coinciding with the celebration of the Solemnity of our Holy Father Saint Dominic and other events in that week almost 40 years ago, the unveiling was undertaken by the 84th Master of the Order Fr Damian Byrne OP following the celebration of Holy Mass attended by over fifty priests.  Our brother Fr Louis Hughes OP recalls his journey from Montenotte to Tralee with Fr Hannigan OP who had served Holy Cross in the 1940s.

The striking 17-foot statue of a Dominican friar was sculpted by stonemason Noel Fitzgibbon, a sixth-generation craftsman who donated his skill and time to the execution of the memorial. The 2.5-tonne statue was crafted over a period of nine months, from an eight-tonne block of limestone.  The sculpting was completed in the former AnCo (An Chomhairle Oiliúna) industrial training centre in Monavalley, Tralee.  The base on which the renowned statue stands was cut by a number of AnCo apprentice stonecutters.

The memorial project was realised by Tralee Urban District Council and the Dominican Memorial Committee in recognition of the service given by our Order to the people of Tralee, as detailed by Committee Secretary John Griffin in the following RTÉ archive item (July 1987).

https://www.rte.ie/archives/collections/news/21254441-dominican-sculpture-tralee/

The statue remained in place on Dominick Street until 2005 when proposed re-development of the area was agreed upon. In consultation with Holy Cross priory, the memorial was relocated to its current position on Staughton's Row, close to Holy Cross Church. Facing the Sliabh Mish mountains, and overlooking Day Place, in this new location it stands tall as a welcome to visitors, a curious invitation to passersby and as a recurrent reminder of our brothers' presence.

Content reused with the permission of RTÉ.