Elephant Luna finds permanent home at garda station garden
Members of Carlow Mental Health Association with local representatives at the installation of Luna at her new home near Carlow Garda Station Photo: Paul Curran
AFTER a year of travelling around Carlow businesses, Luna the elephant has settled down for good.
The 1.5-metre fibreglass sculpture, the centrepiece of Carlow Mental Health Association’s (CMHA) project, took up permanent residence in the community garden at Carlow Garda Station on world mental health day earlier this month.
Luna began her travels on world mental health day last year, with the aim of encouraging people to talk openly about how they feel. She spent time with each of the 50 local businesses that sponsored her and many of them used her visit to run wellbeing events for staff and, in some cases, the public.
“The background to Luna is that Brent Pope had set up this kind of concept of the elephant in the room and it was really to highlight the fact that mental health, mental illness is a taboo subject still that’s not spoken about,” said Rita Kelly, chair of CMHA, referring to the former RTÉ pundit.
Luna cost around €6,000 to make and was painted in CMHA’s yellow and green colours, carrying the logos of all 50 sponsors. “She has lots of stickers on her bum!” laughed Rita.
Some shops in town even displayed Luna in their windows. “So, not only did the company that had Luna get the benefit of it but the public were becoming more and more aware of her,” she said.
Carlow County Council provided the site and David Walsh Civil Engineering installed her free of charge. “We emailed and the next morning I had a phone call from David Walsh’s office to say ‘we’ll do whatever you need done with Luna and we’ll do it free of charge’,’’ said Rita.
The public was invited to welcome Luna to her new home with the organisers providing entertainment for children (including some kid goats courtesy of Nore Valley Pet Farm) and information for adults. Local gardaí offered refreshments in the station.
CMHA has asked the people of Carlow to take ownership of Luna and to use the garden for a few minutes of reflection in the middle of the busy town.
One gentle reminder: Luna can handle the weather, but she is not a climbing frame. That goes for late night adults, too!
