KERRY Group Commemorative
Sundial |
The KERRY Group, a world
leader in Taste and Nutrition serving the food, beverage and pharmaceutical
industries, is a leading supplier of added value brands and customer branded
foods to international markets. With 24,000 employees around the world and
annual revenue of over 5.8bn, KERRY is one of Ireland's most successful
companies.
Following completion of its new Global Technology &
Innovation Centre in Naas, County Kildare, KERRY wanted a permanent on-site
memento involving all the colleagues who would be moving to the building. The
brief was to bring together KERRY's people, science, technology and heritage
into one memorable piece. The concept for the piece came from Sue Lamon-Diver
who represented KERRY, but it was ultimately brought to life by InnerWorkings,
a local design company, with a global presence. Emerson Palmer, their Managing
Director, suggested the idea of a sundial as a perfect representation of all of
the key elements that make KERRY the company it is today and then went on to
manage the entire project. Sundial maker Cormac Lalor, a County Kildare native,
now of Cork was appointed to undertake the sundial design and project
drafting.
KERRY Group
Sundial
The sundial is a
conventional horizontal dial, set for Mean Time by incorporating a longitude
correction to the hour line layout. The gnomon is 100 mm thick and has a
vertical height of 2 metres. The chapter ring is 500mm wide and has an outside
diameter of 4.68 metres, and the overall project has a diameter is 6.68 metres.
At the noonpoint on the dial face, carved in relief within a rectangular box,
is the company logo"KERRY".
KERRY Group Logo
Irish Summer
Time (UTC+1), is indicated by large Roman numerals on the outside of the 500 mm
wide chapter ring. Smaller Arabic numerals on the inside indicate Winter Time
when our clocks are set one hour 'back'. There are hour (from 4a.m. to 8p.m.)
half hour, quarter hour and five minute divisions on the dial. There are two
mottos engraved on the sundial to celebrate the company's innovative and
forward-looking ethos while never forgetting that its heritage or that its
people are ultimately its strength: "CONNECTING PAST HISTORY AND AMBITION FOR
THE FUTURE" and a further inscription in Irish "NÍ NEART GO CUR LE
CHÉILE", (There is no strength without unity).
It took six weeks
to make the six hundred terracotta tiles of the handprints of all KERRY
colleagues in Naas, between cutting the clay, getting the prints, firing and
cooling. The plates, of varying dimensions to fit each of the sundial's
surrounding rings, were ingeniously transported on the trays of a bread van
from County Kildare to County Clare for glazing and firing and returned the
same way for incorporation into the sundial on site. Once completed, they were
laid in concentric rings enclosing the Valentia slate chapter ring, to
celebrate the company's heritage and humble beginnings in the South West of
Ireland.
KERRY Dial
Mottos The Sundial Project Committee were :-
Artwork concept and photos: Sue
Lamon-Diver,who represented KERRY
Project management:
Emerson
Palmer , of InnerWorkings, Sallins.
Project drafting and sundial design: Cormac Lalor
, Co Kildare native, now of Cork.
Terracotta plates: Hannah
Arnup and John Egan , husband and wife team of Ballymorris
Pottery in Co Clare.
Sundial slate
components: Quarried and honed by
Valentia Slate Ltd, on Valentia Island, Co Kerry, under the
direction of Michael Lyne and Pat O'Driscoll.
Chapter ring (16 segments) : Engraved by French
sculptor Alain
Gargam , Midleton, Co Cork.
True North established by: Murphy
Surveys Ltd of Kilcullen, Co. Kildare
Sundial mosaic: Laid by
Tim
Kruger Tiling Service and his German+Polish team from
Portarlington, Co. Laois.
The 100m. building
was officially opened by Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Enda Kenny TD, on 1st Oct.
2015.
The KERRY Group Global Technology and Innovation Centre is located
west of Naas, Co. Kildare, in the Millennium Park off the M7 motorway between
junctions 9 and 10.
Lat 53° 14' North
Long 6°
40' West
If you
know the location of a sundial in Ireland (NOT a mass produced
DIY Store garden ornament) please email it to me
(Click here to email
M.J.Harley) - a
member of British Sundial Society
This site
is copyright M.J.Harley ©