Overview
Oliver Sheppard modelled The Death of Cúchulainn in 1911 during Ireland's cultural revival. Éamon de Valera later chose the bronze as the official memorial to the 1916 Easter Rising, and it was unveiled inside Dublin's General Post Office in 1935. Its dying hero became one of modern Ireland's most repeated and contested public images.
Why it was made
Sheppard first made the work from the old tale in which the wounded Cúchulainn ties himself upright to face his enemies, rather than as a direct Rising memorial.
People and events
Éamon de Valera saw the unsold work in Sheppard's studio, selected it for the General Post Office and unveiled it on Easter Sunday, 21 April 1935.
How it worked
The bronze joins heroic legend, a body posed like a dead Christ and the General Post Office's own battle damage to present sacrifice as a national story.
What remains
The bronze figure remains visible through the great front window of the General Post Office, with a raven on its shoulder and the hero bound upright to a stone.
Why it mattered
Its image passed onto medals, a 1966 coin, stamps and political art, showing how one sculpture could carry sharply different ideas of courage and Irish identity.
History checked 16 August 2026 against the named sources below.
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