500ft Palestine flag drawn on the sand of Waterford beach
Local artist Sean Corcoran creates 500ft Palestine flag in the sand of Kilmurrin Cove.
A 500 foot Palestinian Flag was carved into the sands of Kilmurrin Cove on the Copper Coast in County Waterford last week, to coincide with Ireland officially recognising the State of Palestine.
The piece was created by local artist Sean Corcoran, best known for his massive sand art drawings, the majority of which are freehand without the use of string or measuring tapes.
The flag spans the entire width of Kilmurrin cove and took Sean three hours to complete.
He commented on social media: “I don’t usually use my art for political purposes but in this case I felt I had to make a stand. I believe the Irish government have done the right thing by recognising the State of Palestine.
“Norway and Spain also declared their recognition of the State of Palestine today. I believe this is an important move and that other nations will now also show their solidarity with the Palestinian people that are suffering so much.”
He added that the flag has received a considerable amount of media attention globally.
“My interpretation of the Palestinian flag has already reached a lot of people. This is mainly thanks to RTÉ News and the many other media outlets around the world, especially Australian ones, that have featured it.
“The sand art flag has sparked huge debate on social media. The video posted by RTÉ on Instagram for example has already had over 300,000 views with thousands of likes and hundreds of comments.”
"Much of the commentary is quite malicious with people with opposing opinions getting vicious with each other. Doesn’t seem to be a lot of middle ground, just like the conflict itself, there’s not much talk about peace and finding solutions.
“I’m happy to be able to make a contribution through my art and I hope it might encourage others to make a stand too.”
