Fred Conlon

Who was Fred Conlon?

Fred Conlon was an Irish sculptor.

Born in Killeenduff, Easky, County Sligo, where he was schooled, Conlon won a five year scholarship to the National College of Art and Design in 1960. Domhnail O'Murchadha, assistant Professor of Sculpture, encouraged him to complete a Sculpture Diploma. He then spent a year obtaining an Art Teachers Certificate and became a scupluture Associate of the College, where he stayed until 1972 apart from eighteen months as Art Teacher in Navan Vocational School.

In 1972 Conlon returned to Sligo to teach at the Sligo Vocational School for a year before becoming a Lecturer at the Sligo Regional Technical College, where he helped to develop a diploma course in Art. For the next sixteen years he lectured in sculpture and drawing there until his early retirement 1989.

He worked full-time as a professional sculptor until early 2004 when a brain tumour was diagnosed. Although some 80% of the tumour was removed, Conlon was physically incapacitated and required extensive care for the remaining year of his life. During that year he worked on a video installation entitled Become.

Conlon's works include Millennium Garden Sculpture at Lucan Community College.