County Kerry
Religious statues in Co. Kerry
Kerry is St Brendan’s county: the Saints’ Road runs across the Dingle peninsula to the mountain named after him, and Killarney has one of Pugin’s finest cathedrals.
The Diocese of Kerry
St Mary’s Cathedral, Killarney, is the cathedral of the Diocese of Kerry, which also takes in a corner of north-west Cork. It was designed by Augustus Welby Pugin, drawing on the ruins of Ardfert Cathedral; building began in 1842, was halted by the Famine, and the church was ready for worship in 1855. The nave and the tall spire were finished only in the early twentieth century.
Pilgrim paths and holy places
Cosán na Naomh, the Saints’ Road
About 18 km from Ventry strand towards Mount Brandon, past Gallarus Oratory and Kilmalkedar. The medieval pilgrimage honoured St Brendan; the marked route now ends at the foot of the mountain, and the summit itself needs care in mist.
Ardfert
Linked by tradition with St Brendan, who is said to have been born near Tralee. The ruined cathedral is the one Pugin had in mind at Killarney.
Skellig Michael
The early monastery on the rock off Portmagee, its beehive cells still standing after well over a thousand years.
Which statues suit
Kerry’s weather decides a lot. On the peninsulas, a statue outdoors takes salt wind and heavy rain, and hand-carved marble is the material that copes — our outdoor statues and the outdoor care guide will help.
For a home or a holiday house, painted resin: Our Lady of Grace, the Sacred Heart, or St Francis for someone who loves the outdoors. A statue of St Brendan would be a commission — we quote first.
For Kerry homes and gardens
Our Lady of Grace
Hand-painted resin
€60
Our Lady of Lourdes and St Bernadette
Hand-painted resin · the pair
€240
Our Lady of Knock
Hand-carved marble
€1,600
Holy Family
Hand-carved marble
€2,800
Our Lady of Lourdes (Fine Detail)
Hand-carved marble · 3ft 3in
€2,400
Our Lady of Lourdes (Blue Ribbon)
Hand-carved marble · blue ribbon
€2,100
Questions from Kerry
How much is delivery to Co. Kerry?
Resin statues go by post to any address in Co. Kerry for a flat €15 per order, however many statues are in the parcel. Marble is too heavy for the post, so we deliver it ourselves; the delivery charge for each marble statue is shown on its own page before you order. That includes the Dingle and Iveragh peninsulas; for marble we agree the day with you, since some roads out there are narrow.
Can a painted statue go in a holiday home that is shut up all winter?
Indoors, yes. A cold, damp, unheated house is harder on paint than a lived-in one, so keep it off outside walls and away from windows that leak.
Do you make statues of Kerry saints?
Not as stock. If you want St Brendan or another local saint, tell us the size and use and we will see whether we can carve it and what it would cost.
A statue for Kerry?
Tell us where the statue will stand and roughly how tall it should be, and we will tell you plainly what suits. WhatsApp or ring +353 85 285 1015, or write to [email protected].
Updated
Read next
Religious statues in Ireland
Statues of Our Lord, Our Lady and the saints for the home, the parish and the garden — hand-painted resin and hand-carved marble, delivered to every county in Ireland.
Cork
Ireland’s largest county has two cathedrals, St Finbarr’s island at Gougane Barra, and roadside grottos to Our Lady in parish after parish — one of them, at Ballinspittle, known far beyond Cork since the summer of 1985.
Limerick
Every June tens of thousands come to Mount St Alphonsus for the Redemptorists’ Solemn Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Limerick is also the county of St Ita of Killeedy, the ‘foster-mother of the saints of Ireland’.
Outdoor statues in Irish weather
Ireland is kind to stone in some ways and hard on it in others. Rain is constant, frost comes and goes, and wind off the Atlantic finds anything not fixed down. A little care at the start and once a year does most of the work.