Nora Owen officially launches new General Michael Collins figurine

Ms. Owen was in the Mid-Cork village where the soy factory is based to officially launch a new figurine of her grand-uncle Michael Collins and to open the factory'snewly refurbished and extednded visitors' centre, where the public can see the process of casting the metal figurines first hand.

The miniature figurine of Collins is the latest in the Prince August factory's range of figures of Irish heroes. The Prince August design team, headed up by Chris Tubb, worked on the figure for a number of months and the management of Prince August was delighted that Ms. Owen a grand-nice of Collins, agreed to take time out of a hectic visit to the Mid-Cork area at the weekend to perform the official launch.

The launch of the figurine took place at 10am at the factory's primises in Kilnamartyra. Prior to the launch of the figurine, manaagemen, staff and visitors gathered outside the building in the cold sunshine, as Ms Owen cut a blue ribbon to open the visitors' centre and local Parish Priest, Fr. Michael Cogann, blessed the building.

Inside, Ms. Owen described the toy factory, which also displays the work of local artists and craftspeople, as "a wonderful oasis of work and art." The toy factory was the epitome of what rural development should be about in that it gave employment locally, allowing people to continue to live in their native place, and brought tourists into the area

The factory had brought pleasure and employment, art and culture to the people of the area and hobbies to those interested in toy soldiers in its twenty three years of existence.

Ms. Owen, who is Fine Gael spokesperson on Public Enterprise, said operations like Prince August should be getting Government assistance.

The figurine of Michael Collins, which was kept wrapped in a minature cloak prior to the unveiling, was a tribute to his life and work. The area around Kilnamartyra and West Cark was a "halowed area" in relation to Michael Collins and she was glad that his name and all he did for Ireland was being talked about again in recent years.

Her own mother, a niece of Collins, never spoke about him. She was one of the last family mambers to see him alive on that fateful day in August, 1922, and the memory of that time was an emotional and painful one for her family.

Collins was the country's first Minister for Justice and founder of the Gardaí and, when Ms. Owen entered her office on her first day as Minister for Justice, she made sure that a bust of Collins behind her desk, was caught by the TV cameras. She was sorry that she did not have the Prince August miniature with her that day, she told the gathering.

She wished Prince August's managing director, Lars Edman, all the best with the factory for the future and hoped it would go from strength to strength. She noted that Lars, a native of Sweden, had come in peace unlike many of his more warlike ancestors and had married a local girl.