In February 2020, our Association turned its attention to restoring the dilapidated O’Brien Family War Memorial grotto located on the grounds of St. Francis of Assisi Church. The grotto was commissioned by Margaret O’Brien who lost four sons in the space of two years during WWII, and her husband, who passed away due to illness in 1942. It was built in the mid-1950s by the father and son team Richard (senior and junior) Mahon, formerly of Logy Bay (see first picture below).

Before proceeding, the Association’s engineer had an independent evaluation of the integrity of the stone structure carried out, which over the years had additional grouting inserted in between the rocks and was showing some weak areas.   The statue at some point had also been painted and was peeling in several places. Our Association contracted the Grand Concourse Authority of St. John’s to restore the grotto, statue, and name plaque. Some stones were re-grouted, and the statue was sandblasted to remove all traces of the paint. This work brought it back to its original glorious state.

New granite plates with the engraved names of family members enclosed the original engravings on the upper portion of the statue base. The correct spelling of the family name was changed from O’Brine to O’Brien. Phase II will see a pictorial storyboard, telling the story of the O’Brien family. Special thanks for the support and guidance received from the SFOA Pastoral Council. Our Association is grateful to AFN Engineering Inc. and Gibbons Snow Architects Inc. of St. John’s for volunteering their time to assess the integrity of the grotto stone structure. The project was completed in October 2020 and all funds were raised by our Association’s Veterans Memorial Committee. Further work is being planned and you can help by sending your gift today.