An acclaimed artist, whose sculptures are to be found across West Belfast, is set to return to the city after a 17-year sojourn in his native Canada.

Born to an Irish mother and an Indian father, Farhad Nargol-O’Neill (52) opened his first Belfast studio in the Brookfield Mill in 1995.

With the Drumcree standoff in full tilt, the city was still a treacherous place for someone of his credentials to navigate. Given the choice between a risky jaunt to the Crumlin Road interface and a new space in the Conway Mill, Farhad opted for latter.

As artist-in-residence at the Conway Mill – where he even showered and slept for a time – the local community, its history, its culture, and its aspirations became a firm focus for Farhad.

His public works include the iconic bronze Cú Chulainn at the Conway Mill, stone sculptures in Aitnamona and Monagh Road, and his Celtic-inspired 'Birth of Kells' piece - a steel artwork at An Chultúrlann which he donated to “the people of West Belfast”.

But when both of his late parents were diagnosed with cancer, he returned to Toronto in 2004 to care for them. From then “life took over”, Farhad said, adding that he “always wanted to come back” to Belfast.

As for his art, Farhad has been busy. A commission to sculpt the Marian Doors for St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica saw him through 2014 to their final installation in early 2019. Ironically, the Cathedral was built by Irish immigrants who fled to Toronto during An Gorta Mór.

Farhad used the money from his Cathedral commission to create a vast array of work, things he “always wanted to produce”. He now has enough artwork for around four exhibitions, but with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic things “just turned into a huge shitshow” - he has two cancelled Cultúrlann gigs to show for it.

Setbacks aside, Farhad’s desire to live and work in Belfast has never waned.  

By any measure he is an artist at the top of his game but admits that he has always somewhat struggled to find work in his hometown.

He attributes this to the long-lasting influence of the Orange Order, which has deep roots in Toronto, as well an anti-Irish racism that is often masked by the city’s progressive veneer.

“I’m known as an Irish artist who does religious Catholic artwork,” Farhad.

“It makes it almost impossible for me to make a living here.

“There’s all the movements towards social justice here – Me Too, Black Lives Matter, for gay, aboriginal, and trans people – but I’m none of those things, I’m just me."

The artist believes Belfast has changed immeasurably since he lived here. He remembers a time when the city centre was pretty much “off limits” to nationalists, working class artists, and working class people general.

“If you talk to people like me, or Danny Devenney, we had no interests in the town,” he said. Their work didn’t find favour in the city centre. “Part of it was the old bigotry and part of it was a class snobbery,” Farhad remarked.

The class division within the artworld meant that “curators and directors had no interest” in working-class artists. However, a trip to Belfast two years ago showed, as Farhad explained, that doors were beginning to open for people like him.

“So many of the things that we community activists and artists fought for have happened,” he added.

In returning to Belfast, his attentions will once again turn to community art. First order of business will be tidying up his artworks in the Upper Springfield area.  

It will also be an opportunity for him, as the son of an Irish speaking Ligoniel woman, to reconnect with our language.

During a Zoom interview with the Andersonstown News he proudly scrolls past an impressive and seemingly endless list of Irish lessons he has completed on Duolingo. His grasps of the language clearly extends beyond a cúpla focail. Plans to become fluent in the time ahead coincide with a strong desire to work alongside the Irish language community to create new artworks.

“The resurrection of the community can’t happen without the Irish language - I think that has to happen all around the Six Counties as well,” he said.

His affinity for the West Belfast community has already been stated, but that doesn’t rule out working in the bigger museums and galleries in the town and elsewhere. This time though, that work will be “on our terms”, he insisted.