Seamus Murphy, working usually in limestone, sculpted ecclesiastical and allegorical statues, portrait heads, commemorative plaques, public monuments, gravestones, and crosses. In bronze, he made portrait heads of public figures, writers, musicians, and friends.
Commissions include:
– Saint Brigid and the Twelve Apostles, San Francisco, USA
– Bronze busts of five presidents of Ireland, Áras an Uachtaráin, Dublin
– President John F. Kennedy, U.S. Embassy, Dublin
– United Nations Monument, Glasnevin, Dublin
In 1950 Seamus published Stone Mad, his famous book celebrating the work of the Stonies, whose craft had begun to die out in the 1940s. It has been described as a classic and is a tribute to the work of innumerable anonymous craftsmen in a tradition that had continued from medieval times.
In 2025, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Seamus’ death, Mercier Press are publishing a cloth-bound limited edition of Stone Mad.