Werner Groll Profile   You are in · RoscreaOnline · Community · People Profiles

Werner originally from Germany has been living in Ireland since 1993. A Carpenter by trade Werner spent many years in Germany as an Art Tutor sharing his many skills and ideals with hundreds of students in the city of Frankfurt.

Werner's influence has helped ensure that many of these students have gone on to develop successful careers in Carpentry, Wood Furnishings and Sculpture etc.

In August 2001 Werner become part of Roscrea 2000's Community Employment Scheme. As part of the scheme Werner developed his own fully equipped workshop where he produced once off custom ordered pieces of Wood Sculpture. At the moment Werner is trying to establish his own business at his new workshop situated in the old meat factory, Roscrea. His goal is to establish an enterprise that will allow him design specific pieces of work while at the same time affording him the opportunity to provide training in wood skills to people interested in developing and harnessing the skills necessary for successful wood carving sculpture.

Since his arrival in Roscrea, Werner has read a lot of material on the town and its history. He quickly identified that Roscrea has a great past providing him with lots of inspiration to create some wonderful pieces of sculpture. Werner's latest pieces include a fantastic wood sculpture of St Cronan, who founded Roscrea. This piece of sculpture found a very appropriate home in the Black Mills on Church Street.

Werner has also designed a piece to honour the many students and local people who worked so hard over the years in the Sacred Heart Convent. Werner's has dedicated this particular piece of sculpture to all the children and adults who worked in very poor conditions in the Convent over the years but still managed to develop skills such as lace making etc.

Werner told Roscrea Online that he would like to see more people take an interest in the history and culture of their town. It is Werner's hope that through sculpture he can ignite a new sense of pride in people. He feels great people from the past such as St Cronan are not properly remembered. In Germany most towns have a resident Artist/Sculpture and it is their job to help recreate the past by using their skills so that the younger generations in particular are encouraged and motivated to go to libraries and ask questions of their teachers etc to find out more about their past. Werner says this form of learning helps instil a new sense of discipline, pride and respect into society, attributes which are sadly lacking in today's modern world.

Werner would like to thank all those who have helped him to date and who have provided him with invaluable resources, advice and encouragement over the last number of years. We wish him every success with his new business.