Son of Albert Power
Oliver Power was born on 8 December 1913 at 18 Geraldine Street, Dublin, the son of Albert George Power RHA and his wife Agnes (née Kelly). Albert and Agnes had eight children in total — five sons and three daughters — of whom three sons and one daughter became sculptors, working in and around their father's studio. Oliver was one of them.
On 1 October 1939, Oliver married Sheila Keating at St. Andrew's Church, Dublin. The marriage record lists Oliver's occupation as "sculptor" and his residence, like his father's, as 18 Geraldine Street. Sheila's father, Thomas Keating, was a carpenter from 15 O'Devaney Street, Dublin. Oliver and Sheila are Mark Freer's grandparents — the direct line connecting this archive to Albert George Power.
The Robert Emmet Bridge Lettering
One of Oliver Power's most significant documented contributions is the carved lettering on the Robert Emmet Bridge memorial at Harold's Cross, Dublin (1938). In 1938, Albert Power completed a bronze relief plaque of Robert Emmet (1778–1803) for the newly renamed Emmet Bridge at Clanbrassil Street Upper — commissioned by the Fourth Battalion of the Dublin Brigade, Old IRA. The bronze was signed and dated in Irish: De Paor, 1938.
The limestone inscription on the plaque was carved by Oliver Power — a direct collaboration between father and son, with Oliver, then 24 years old, responsible for the precision stone lettering that gives the memorial its permanent inscribed character. Carved lettering of this kind — cut directly into stone, permanent and unforgiving — was among the most technically demanding work a stonemason could undertake. There is no correction possible; every cut is final. That Oliver Power's lettering on the Emmet Bridge has endured for nearly a century without deterioration is a testament to his mastery of the craft.
The bridge can still be visited today at the Grand Canal, Harold's Cross Road, Dublin.
The Family Studio
The Power family operated a stone yard and studio in Dublin that was central to their practice. The yard — documented in the family archive through photographs from as early as 1912 — was both a working space and a repository of the family's tools, methods, and knowledge.
Oliver grew up in and around this studio at Geraldine Street, learning the craft directly from his father Albert — the same studio where Albert modelled the death masks of Michael Collins, Cathal Brugha, Arthur Griffith and Erskine Childers, and where, according to his obituary, he was working on a bust of the Venerable Oliver Plunkett right up until shortly before his death in July 1945.
The Wider Power Family of Sculptors
Records held by the family establish that three of Albert and Agnes's sons — Albert (b. 1912, d. 1973), Oliver (b. 1913), and at least one further brother — followed their father into sculpture, alongside one of their sisters. Albert Jr. is recorded in his 1973 obituaries as having "studied under his father and, with his brother Oliver, worked on numerous church monuments and designs all over Ireland." Albert Jr.'s own notable work included the restoration of the statues and carvings on the Custom House, Dublin — a project he completed alone over many years — and the death mask of the writer Máirtín Ó Cadhain (d. 1970). His work can also be seen at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Drogheda, and at Christ the King Church, Carndonagh, Co. Donegal, where he collaborated directly with his father.
A Personal Note
This archive was created by Mark Freer, grandson of Oliver and Sheila Power and great-grandson of Albert G. Power. The genealogy of this page has been reconstructed from primary records — birth, marriage and death certificates, and contemporary newspaper obituaries from July 1945 and 1973 — held in the family archive.
The photographs in this archive of Oliver at work, of the family stone yard, and of the Robert Emmet lettering were preserved through the family and form part of the living memory that this site exists to honour.
Robert Emmet Bridge — Carved Lettering
