KILLORGLIN, CO KERRY is world-famous for a three-day event where a goat is crowned king.
While Puck Fair is rightly known the world over, Killorglin has a smaller, slightly less famous festival: K-Fest, a smorgasbord of art, culture and performance that takes over the town every June Bank Holiday weekend.
K-Fest 2016 was, by all accounts, a huge success, and featured an incredible mural, painted by award-winning Cork artist Lorraine McDonnell.
The mural, of a honeybee dripping in orange and yellow, can still be seen in the village’s Fairfield car park today.
Lorraine told TheJournal.ie:
I was approached by the K-Fest committee to do the mural and sent images of the building . Something about its shape reminded me of a bee hive, so from there I began to the develop the idea[.]
More than half of Ireland’s bee species have substantially declined in number since the 1980s – a fact Lorraine wanted to highlight with her mural.
The piece took a full week to complete, with Lorraine atop scaffolding all day, every day. The mural was finally unveiled in June 2016, to much fanfare, and has regularly made lists of Ireland’s best murals since.
Lorraine describes her creation as “a bright and cheerful image that injects a slice of fun and creative energy into the surrounding ordinariness.”
K-Fest dedicated the mural to “each and every person in Killorglin town”.
The response was great, remembers Lorraine:
As I was painting the mural I got a lot of great feedback from other artists in the festival, as well as the locals, children and people in general going about their daily business. There was also a great reaction from the Tidy Town committee in Killorglin.
So next time you’re parking in the town centre, keep your eyes peeled for this bright, colourful mural – and maybe pick up some local honey while you’re at it!
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