This artist’s ode to a very special tree is popping up in a Macroom coffee shop

Like a bit of art with your double espresso?
A beautiful new exhibition by Cork artist John Flynn is popping up in Pop Crowley’s Grocer’s on Macroom’s Back Square.
Entitled Maigh Chromtha – The Crooked Oak/ The Plain of Crom, the pieces all celebrate a special tree that grew in the middle of Macroom town during the reign of the English King John.
“The origin of the Macroom name comes from many sources.” says John.
“‘The Crooked Plain’ is a reference to the landmark tree situated in the the town square, a noted stopping point along journeys. The ‘Plain of Crom’ was a place of worship during pagan Ireland, of the mythological and fertility god Cruach Crom, ‘black, crooked, one’.
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“This exhibition is a celebration of some of the trees in the town and the surrounding areas. These giants give us peace and inspiration. They invoke emotions, they are landmarks we pass on journeys and reminders of memories and change during the seasons – like of ourselves in life.”
Flynn is also the artist behind the picture of the historic Avery body weighing scales that hangs proudly in Pop Crowley’s, the iconic symbol of the old Crowley’s shop on Michael Collins Place Killarney and a long family tradition.
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Pop Crowleys is open Tuesday-Friday 9.30am-5pm and Saturday 9.30am-4pm.
You can buy the pieces framed in oak and ash for €160 directly from the artist’s website.

