Bronze
Edition of 9
76 x 68 x 34 cm
2013
Unveiled at the Munster Rugby High Performance Centre at their official
opening in 2017, UL Sport Arena, University of Limerick, to represent the stag
on the Munster Rugby crest.
The Giant Irish Deer, or Irish Elk, now extinct, had the largest antlers of any mammal that ever walked the earth, with antlers spanning up to four metres wide. At shoulder height it was almost two meters tall. The best skeletal remains are found in Irish bogland, hence the name Giant Irish Deer. The Megaloceros giganteus is thought to have existed about 400,000 years ago, originating in Asia and roaming all over northern Europe (Ireland and Britain were then connected to mainland Europe by land bridges), but it fell into extinction about 12,000 years ago. Its closest relatives today are thought to be the fallow deer. The sculpture was made with careful anatomical reference to the skeletons in the Natural History
