[citation needed] His father, Jack Gillespie, was a medical doctor and his mother, Moira, was the daughter of James Creed Meredith, the translator of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Judgement, a Supreme Court of Ireland judge, and a member of the Irish Volunteers.

The film, also aired on the Arts Channel in New Zealand, portrays the sculptor as he creates a series of famine sculptures from research, through to unveiling in Ireland Park, Toronto.

[11] Partly based on his reading of Joseph O'Connor's novel, Star of the Sea, Gillespie enters the world of its central character, the murderous Pius Mulvey as he haunts the decks of a coffin ship and becomes an emaciated ghost, living among the hundreds of Irish emigrants crammed into steerage.

The Hamilton Spectator described the work as follows: "The early immigrants are now honoured at the Toronto waterfront park by five haunting bronze statues created by Irish sculptor Rowan Gillespie.

One figure depicts a man lying on the ground, emaciated; another shows a pregnant woman clutching her bulging stomach, while behind her a meek child stands wide-eyed.

In his portrayals of James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, Samuel Beckett, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Jesus Christ, Gillespie has undertaken his own spiritual and literary journey.

[citation needed] His more conceptual and abstract pieces such as Looking at the Moon, The Kiss and the more recent, Proclamation, span the whole gamut of human emotions, from love and awe, to hate and self-destruction.

[citation needed] As his biographer writes: "Rowan's passionate and often draining encounters with his subjects, and his willingness to undergo personal transformation and rebirth in light of them, takes shape in the gnarled and volcanic textures of his later pieces.

"[15] The original model for Proclamation was called Imagine and according to Gillespie's biographer: "it alluded not only to the John Lennon peace anthem, but also to the dreams for a utopian society in Ireland espoused by Rowan's grandfather, James Creed Meredith (1874-1942)".