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This meant that any action to remove or resite the Pillar, or replace the statue, would require the passage of an [[Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom|Act of Parliament]] in London; [[Dublin Corporation]] (the city government) had no authority in the matter.{{sfn|Kennedy|2013|p=37}} No action followed the city plan suggestion, but in the following years attempts to remove and resite the monument would recur.{{sfn|Ó Riain|1998}} A proposal was made in 1876 by Alderman Peter McSwiney, a former Lord Mayor,{{sfn|Lord Mayors of Dublin 1665–2015}} to remove the "unsightly structure" and replace it with a memorial to the recently-deceased [[John Gray (Irish politician)|Sir John Gray]], who had done much to provide Dublin with a clean water supply. The Corporation was unable to advance this idea.{{sfn|Fallon|2015|p=42}} In 1882 the Moore Street Market and Dublin City Improvement Act was passed by the Westminster parliament, overriding the trust and giving the Corporation authority ro resite the Pillar—subject to a strict timetable, which the city authorities found impossible to act within. Thus the Pillar remained;{{sfn|Kennedy|2013|p=38}} a similar attempt, with the same result, was made in 1891.{{sfn|Ó Riain|1998}} Not all Dubliners favoured either demolition or removal; some businesses considered the Pillar to be the city's focal point, and the tramway company petitioned for its retention.{{sfn|Henchy|1948|p=61}} "In many ways", says Fallon, "the pillar had become part of the fabric of the city".{{sfn|Fallon|2014|p=44}} Kennedy writes: "A familiar and very large if rather scruffy piece of the city's furniture, it was ''The'' Pillar, Dublin's Pillar rather than Nelson's Pillar ...it was also an outing, an experience".{{sfn|Kennedy|2013|p=41}} |
This meant that any action to remove or resite the Pillar, or replace the statue, would require the passage of an [[Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom|Act of Parliament]] in London; [[Dublin Corporation]] (the city government) had no authority in the matter.{{sfn|Kennedy|2013|p=37}} No action followed the city plan suggestion, but in the following years attempts to remove and resite the monument would recur.{{sfn|Ó Riain|1998}} A proposal was made in 1876 by Alderman Peter McSwiney, a former Lord Mayor,{{sfn|Lord Mayors of Dublin 1665–2015}} to remove the "unsightly structure" and replace it with a memorial to the recently-deceased [[John Gray (Irish politician)|Sir John Gray]], who had done much to provide Dublin with a clean water supply. The Corporation was unable to advance this idea.{{sfn|Fallon|2015|p=42}} In 1882 the Moore Street Market and Dublin City Improvement Act was passed by the Westminster parliament, overriding the trust and giving the Corporation authority ro resite the Pillar—subject to a strict timetable, which the city authorities found impossible to act within. Thus the Pillar remained;{{sfn|Kennedy|2013|p=38}} a similar attempt, with the same result, was made in 1891.{{sfn|Ó Riain|1998}} Not all Dubliners favoured either demolition or removal; some businesses considered the Pillar to be the city's focal point, and the tramway company petitioned for its retention.{{sfn|Henchy|1948|p=61}} "In many ways", says Fallon, "the pillar had become part of the fabric of the city".{{sfn|Fallon|2014|p=44}} Kennedy writes: "A familiar and very large if rather scruffy piece of the city's furniture, it was ''The'' Pillar, Dublin's Pillar rather than Nelson's Pillar ...it was also an outing, an experience".{{sfn|Kennedy|2013|p=41}} |
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The year 1894 saw some significant alterations to the Pillar's fabric: a new, grand entrance was built on the south face of the plinth, and the whole monument was surrounded by heavy iron railings.{{sfn|Henchy|1948|p=57}} In the new century, despite the growing nationalism within Dublin—80 per cent of the Corporation's members were nationalists of some description—the pillar was liberally decorated with flags and streamers to mark the 1905 Trafalgar centenary.{{sfn|Fallon|2014|pp=45–46}} The changing political atmosphere had been indicated by the gradual arrival in Sackville Street of further monuments, all celebrating distinctively Irish heroes. Between the 1860s and 1911, Nelson was joined by monuments to [[Daniel O'Connell]], [[William Smith O'Brien]] and [[Charles Stuart Parnell]], as well as Sir John Gray and the temperance campaigner [[Theobald Mathew (temperance reformer)|Father Matthew]]. The historian Yvonne Whelan describes this proliferation as an act of defiance towards the British Government, a "challenge in stone".{{sfn|Whelan|2014|p=94}} |
The year 1894 saw some significant alterations to the Pillar's fabric: a new, grand entrance was built on the south face of the plinth, and the whole monument was surrounded by heavy iron railings.{{sfn|Henchy|1948|p=57}}{{refn|These changes were made by Dublin architect George Palmer Beater (1850-1928).{{sfn|"Beater, George Palmer" Dictionary of Irish Architects}} The porch, with Nelson's name over the entrance, was made from "chiselled granite lined internally with white enamelled brick". In addition to this, [[gilding]] was added to the incised inscriptions on the pedestal and to Nelson's name.{{sfn|"Design for entrance and railings" 2015}}|group= n}} In the new century, despite the growing nationalism within Dublin—80 per cent of the Corporation's members were nationalists of some description—the pillar was liberally decorated with flags and streamers to mark the 1905 Trafalgar centenary.{{sfn|Fallon|2014|pp=45–46}} The changing political atmosphere had been indicated by the gradual arrival in Sackville Street of further monuments, all celebrating distinctively Irish heroes. Between the 1860s and 1911, Nelson was joined by monuments to [[Daniel O'Connell]], [[William Smith O'Brien]] and [[Charles Stuart Parnell]], as well as Sir John Gray and the temperance campaigner [[Theobald Mathew (temperance reformer)|Father Matthew]]. The historian Yvonne Whelan describes this proliferation as an act of defiance towards the British Government, a "challenge in stone".{{sfn|Whelan|2014|p=94}} |
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===Easter Rising, April 1916=== |
===Easter Rising, April 1916=== |
Revision as of 01:49, 13 March 2016
Nelson Pillar | |
---|---|
Alternative names | Nelson's Pillar The Pillar |
General information | |
Status | Destroyed |
Location | O'Connell Street, Dublin, Ireland |
Groundbreaking | 15 February 1808 |
Opening | 21 October 1809 |
Destroyed | 8–14 March 1966 |
Client | Dublin Corporation |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | Francis Johnston |
53°20′59″N 6°15′37″W / 53.349803°N 6.260266°W The Nelson Pillar (also known as Nelson's Pillar or simply The Pillar) was a large granite pillar topped by a statue of Horatio Nelson in the middle of O'Connell Street (formerly Sackville Street) in Dublin. It was built in 1808–1809, and was among the first and grandest monuments erected in memory of Nelson in the then United Kingdom. It survived until March 1966, when it was destroyed by a bomb planted by Irish republicans. Today the Spire of Dublin stands on its former ground.
Background
Sackville Street
The redevelopment of the part the city of Dublin north of the River Liffey began in the first decades of the 18th century, largely through the enterprise of the property speculator Luke Gardiner. Born around 1690 into poverty, Gardiner overcame his circumstances to carve a career in banking and public service, amassing a considerable fortune on the way.[1] In the 1720s he laid out Henrietta Street, in the city's north-west, as an exclusive residential location; his best-known work, however, commenced in the 1740s when he began the transformation of what was originally a narrow lane called Drogheda Street, which ran southwards towards the Liffey.[2] The Dublin historian Frank Hopkins records that Gardiner demolished all the street's existing buildings and replaced them with large and imposing town houses. He widened the street to 150 feet and constructed a central tree-lined walkway to run down its centre. The walkway was called Gardiner's Mall; the main street was named Sackville Street, in honour of Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset, who served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1731 to 1737 and from 1751 to 1755.[3]
The development of Sackville Street continued after Gardiner's death in 1755; the creation of Lower Sackville Street brought it to the banks of the Liffey.[4] In 1791 work began on the Carlisle Bridge, which on completion created a continuous wide thoroughfare, from the Rotunda Hospital down to College Green and the Irish Parliament House.[4][5] Dublin's growth continued, with many fine public buildinga and grand squares; moreover its importance was amplified by the presence in the city of the Parliament of Ireland for six months of the year, the 300 MPs and 271 Irish peers providing much economic stimulus and the core of the city's social season.[6] The Acts of Union of 1800, which united Ireland and Great Britain under a single Westminster polity, ended the Irish parliament and presaged a period of decline for the city.[7] In Sackville Street, in the absence of parlimentarians to tenant them, the properties began to fall vacant;[8] The historian Tristram Hunt writes: "[T]he capital's dynamism vanished, absenteeism returned and the big houses lost their patrons".[7]
Forerunner
The first monument to be erected in the newly-aggrandized Sackville Street was erected in 1759, in the location where the Nelson Pillar would eventually stand. The subject was William Blakeney, 1st Baron Blakeney, a Limerick-born army officer whose career extended to more than 60 years and had ended with his surrender to the French after the Siege of Minorca in 1756. In contrast to the condemnation of the naval commander, Admiral John Byng, who was tried and executed for dereliction of duty, no blame for the defeat was attached to Blakeney, who on his return to Ireland in 1757 was knighted and raised to the Irish peerage.[9]
The idea that Blakeney should be further honoured by a statue was promoted by the Friendly Brothers of St Patrick, an organisation of Dublin businessmen that included the brewer Arthur Guinness. They commissioned a well-known sculptor, John van Nost the younger, who created a figure in brass, placed on a white marble pedestal. This was unveiled on St Patrick's Day, 17 March 1759; a contemporary report praised the figure, "not only for the strength and judgement expressed in the likeness of the brave old general but also in the beauty and elegance with which the drapery and armour is executed".[10] Most unusually, Blakeney was still living at the time—he died in September 1761.[11] There are differing versions of the monument's later history: Donal Fallon, in his history of the Nelson Pillar, states that almost from its inception the Blakeney statue was a target for vandalism, and was so frequently damaged that by 1783 it had been removed, possibly to be later melted down for cannon.[11] Dennis Kennedy, in his account of the Pillar's origins, records that it "had fallen into disrepair and had gone by 1805", or possibly was removed to make way for the Nelson Pillar.[12]
Trafalgar
On 21 October 1805 a Royal Naval fleet commanded by Vice Admiral Lord Nelson defeated the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies in the Battle of Trafalgar, a key engagement of the Napoleonic Wars. At the height of the battle, Nelson, aboard his flagship HMS Victory, was mortally wounded; when he died later that day, victory was assured.[13]
Nelson had been hailed in the streets of Dublin seven years earlier, after the Battle of the Nile, when on the many banners hung in his honour he was depicted defending the Harp and Crown.[14] When news of Trafalgar reached the city on 8 November, there were similar scenes of patriotic celebration, together with a desire that the fallen hero should be commemorated.[15] The rich mercantile classes had particular reason to be grateful for a victory that restored the freedom of the high seas and removed the threat of a French invasion,[16] but many of the city's population had a direct personal involvement with the battle: up to one-third of the sailors in Nelson's fleet were from Ireland, including around 400 from Dublin itself. "It would be rash to assume", Kennedy writes, "that even the most politically aware Catholics, particularly those from among the rising middle and professional classes ... would have regarded Nelson as other than a hero".[17]
The first step towards the erection of a permanent memorial to Nelson was taken on 18 November 1805 by the city aldermen, who in a message of congratulation to King George III, agreed on "the expediency of some speedy and practical measure to compliment the memory of Lord Nelson", and that "a statue in the city would form a fitting tribute".[18][19] On 28 November, after a public meetings had supported this sentiments, a "Nelson committee" was established, chaired by the Lord Mayor. It contained four of the city's Westminster MPs, alongside other city notables including the "Second Arthur Guinness", son of the brewery founder.[20] The committee's initial tasks were to decide what form the monument should take and where it should be put, and to raise the funds to pay for it.[21]
Inception, design and construction
At its first meeting the Nelson committee established a public subscription, and invited contributions from the public and from interested organisations. Early in 1806 the committee invited artists and architects to submit design proposals for the monument.[22] No specifications were provided, but the current European vogue in commemorative architecture suggested a classical form, typified by Trajan's Column in Rome.[23] Monumental columns, or "pillars of victory", were uncommon in Ireland at the time; the Cumberland Column in Birr, County Offaly, erected in 1747, was a rare exception.[24] From the entries submitted, the Nelson committee's choice was that of a young English architect, William Wilkins, who was then in the early stages of a distinguished career.[n 1] Wilkins's proposals envisaged a tall Doric column on a plinth, surmounted by a sculpted Roman galley.[26]
The choice of the Sackville Street site was not unanimous. The Wide Streets Commissioners were concerned about traffic congestion around the proposed site, and argued for a riverside location visible from the sea.[16] Another suggestion was a seaside position, perhaps at Howth Head at the entrance to Dublin Bay. The recent presence of the Blakeney statue in Sackville Street, and a desire to arrest the street's decline in the post-parliamentary years, were factors that may have influenced the final selection of that site which, Kennedy says, was the preferred choice of the Lord Lieutenant.[27]
Wording of memorial plaque laid with the
foundation stone, 15 February 1808
- BY THE BLESSING OF ALMIGHTY GOD, To Commemorate the Transcendent Heroic Achievements of the Right Honourable HORATIO LORD VISCOUNT NELSON, Duke of Bronti in Sicily, Vice-Admiral of the White Squadron of His Majesty's Fleet, Who fell gloriously in the Battle off CAPE TRAFALGAR, on the 21st Day of October 1805; when he obtained for his Country a VICTORY over the COMBINED FLEET OF FRANCE AND SPAIN, unparalleled in Naval History. This first STONE of a Triumphal PILLAR was laid by HIS GRACE CHARLES DUKE OF RICHMOND and LENNOX, Lord Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland, on the 15th Day of February in the year of our Lord, 1808. and in the 48th Year of our most GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN GEORGE THE THIRD, in the presence of the Committee appointed by the Subscribers for erecting this monument.
(Dennis Kennedy: Dublin's Fallen Hero (2013) p. 15)[28]
By mid-1807, fundraising was proving difficult; the sum raised was at that point was well short of the likely cost of erecting Wilkins's column. The committee informed the architect, with regret, that "means were not placed in their hands to enable them to gratify him, as well as themselves, by executing his design precisely as he had given it".[29] They employed Francis Johnston, architect to the City Board of Works, to make cost-cutting adjustments to Wilkins's scheme.[n 2] Johnston simplified the design, replaced Wilkins's delicate plinth with a functional block, and substituted a statue of Nelson for the Roman galley.[29] Thomas Kirk, a sculptor from Cork, was commissioned to provide a statue fashioned from Portland stone.[31][32]
By December 1807 the fund stood at £3,827, still far short of the estimated £6,500 required to finance the project.[28][n 3] Nevertheless, by the beginning of 1807 the committee felt confident enough to begin the work, and organised the laying of the foundation stone. This ceremony took place on 15 February 1808—the day following the anniversary of Nelson's victory at the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797[34]—amid much pomp, in the presence of the new Lord Lieutenant, the Duke of Richmond and various civic dignitaries and city notables.[35] A memorial plaque eulogising Nelson's Trafalgar victory was attached to the stone. The committee continued to raise money as construction work proceeded;[34] when the project was complete in the autumn of 1809, costs totalled £6,856, but contributions had reached £7,138, providing the committee with a surplus of £282.[36]
When finished, the Pillar complete with Statue, rose to a total height of 134 feet (40.8 m).[n 4] The four sides of the plinth were engraved with the names and dates of Nelson's greatest victories.[36][n 5] A spiral stairway of 168 steps ascended the hollow interior of the column, to a viewing platform immediately beneath the statue.[39] According to the committee's published report, 22,090 cubic feet (626 m3) of black limestone and 7,310 cubic feet (207 m3) of granite had been used to build the column and its plinth.[40] The Pillar opened to the public on 21 October 1809, the fourth anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar; for a charge of ten pre-decimal pence (4p),[36][n 6] visitors could climb the steps to the viewing platform and enjoy what an early report describes as "a superb panoramic view of the city, the country and the fine bay".[38]
History 1809–1966
1809–1916
From its outset the Pillar became, a popular tourist attraction; Kennedy writes that "for the next 157 years its ascent was a must on every visitor's list".[41] Yet from the beginning there were criticisms, on both political and aesthetic grounds. The September 1809 issue of the Irish Monthly Magazine, edited by the revolution-minded Walter "Watty" Cox,[42]reported that "our independence has been wrested from us, not by the arms of France but by the gold of England. The statue of Nelson records the glory of a mistress and the transformation of our senate into a discount office".[16] A more positive view appeared in the Hibernian Magazine, which in August 1809 described the statue as having a strong resemblance to Nelson. Moreover the column's position in the centre of the wide street, it said, gave the eye a focal point in what was otherwise "wastes of pavements".[43] In an early (1818) history of the city of Dublin, the writers express awe at the scale of the monument, but are critical of several of its features: its proportions are described as "ponderous", the pedestal or plinth as "unsightly" and the column itself as "clumsy".[37]
Kennedy observes that by 1830, rising nationalist sentiment in Ireland made it likely that the Pillar was "the Ascendancy's last hurrah"— it probably could not have been built at any later date.[44] Nevertheless the monument continued to attract favourable attention and comment; on a visit to Dublin in 1842 the writer William Makepeace Thackeray noted Nelson "upon a stone-pillar in the middle of the "exceedingly broad and handsome" Sackville Street: "The Post Office is on his right hand (only it is cut off); and on his left, 'Gresham's' and the 'Imperial Hotel' ".[45] A few years later, the monument was a source of pride to many, who dubbed it "Dublin's Glory", when Queen Victoria visited the city in 1849.[16]
In 1853 the queen attended the Dublin Great Industrial Exhibition, where a city plan was displayed that envisaged the removal of the Pillar.[16] However, the legal status of the Pillar had been determined in 1811, when responsibility for it had been vested in a trust,[46] under the terms of which the trustees were required "to embellish and uphold the monument in perpetuation of the object for which it was subscribed".[47] This meant that any action to remove or resite the Pillar, or replace the statue, would require the passage of an Act of Parliament in London; Dublin Corporation (the city government) had no authority in the matter.[48] No action followed the city plan suggestion, but in the following years attempts to remove and resite the monument would recur.[16] A proposal was made in 1876 by Alderman Peter McSwiney, a former Lord Mayor,[49] to remove the "unsightly structure" and replace it with a memorial to the recently-deceased Sir John Gray, who had done much to provide Dublin with a clean water supply. The Corporation was unable to advance this idea.[50] In 1882 the Moore Street Market and Dublin City Improvement Act was passed by the Westminster parliament, overriding the trust and giving the Corporation authority ro resite the Pillar—subject to a strict timetable, which the city authorities found impossible to act within. Thus the Pillar remained;[51] a similar attempt, with the same result, was made in 1891.[16] Not all Dubliners favoured either demolition or removal; some businesses considered the Pillar to be the city's focal point, and the tramway company petitioned for its retention.[52] "In many ways", says Fallon, "the pillar had become part of the fabric of the city".[53] Kennedy writes: "A familiar and very large if rather scruffy piece of the city's furniture, it was The Pillar, Dublin's Pillar rather than Nelson's Pillar ...it was also an outing, an experience".[54]
The year 1894 saw some significant alterations to the Pillar's fabric: a new, grand entrance was built on the south face of the plinth, and the whole monument was surrounded by heavy iron railings.[55][n 7] In the new century, despite the growing nationalism within Dublin—80 per cent of the Corporation's members were nationalists of some description—the pillar was liberally decorated with flags and streamers to mark the 1905 Trafalgar centenary.[58] The changing political atmosphere had been indicated by the gradual arrival in Sackville Street of further monuments, all celebrating distinctively Irish heroes. Between the 1860s and 1911, Nelson was joined by monuments to Daniel O'Connell, William Smith O'Brien and Charles Stuart Parnell, as well as Sir John Gray and the temperance campaigner Father Matthew. The historian Yvonne Whelan describes this proliferation as an act of defiance towards the British Government, a "challenge in stone".[59]
Easter Rising, April 1916
On Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, units of the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army seized several prominent buildings and streets in central Dublin, including the General Post Office (GPO) in Sackville Street. They set up their headquarters in the GPO and declared the Irish Republic under a provisional government.[60] One of the first recorded actions of the Easter Rising occurred in the vicinity of the Pillar: a troop of lancers sent from the nearby Marlborough Street barracks, sent to investigate, was fired on from the GPO and retired in confusion, leaving four soldiers and two horses dead.[61]
During the days that followed, Sackville Street and particularly the area around the Pillar became a battleground. According to some histories of the Rising, attempts were made by insurgents to blow up the Pillar, which many saw as a symbol of British imperial rule. Such accounts are unconfirmed and were disputed by many that fought in the Rising[62] on the grounds that the Pillar's large base provided them with useful cover as they moved to and from other rebel positions.[63] By Thursday night, British artillery fire had set much of Sackville Street ablaze, but according to Peter De Rosa's account of the Rising: "On his pillar, Nelson surveyed it all serenely, as though he were lit up by a thousand lamps".[64] The statue was visible against the fiery backdrop from as far away as Killiney, 9 miles (14 km) away.[65]
By Saturday, when the Provisional Government finally surrendered, many of the Sackville Street buildings between the Pillar and the Liffey had been destroyed or badly damaged, including the Imperial Hotel that Thackeray had admired.[66][67] Only the facade of the GPO remained; against the tide of opinion Bernard Shaw said the demolition of the city's classical architecture scarcely mattered: "What does matter is the Liffey slums have not been demolished".[68] An account in a New York newspaper reported that the Pillar had been razed to the ground, lost to the destruction of the street.[69] In fact, throughout the fighting the monument sustained only minor damage, chiefly bullet marks on the column and on the statue itself—one shot is said to have taken off Nelson's nose.[70]
In an independent Ireland
After the Anglo-Irish war of 1919–21 and the treaty that followed it, Ireland was partitioned; Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, a Dominion within the British Commonwealth of Nations.[71] From December 1922, when the Free State was inaugurated, the Pillar became an issue for an Irish rather than a British government. In 1923, when Sackville Street was again in ruins as a result of actions during the Irish Civil War,[72] The Irish Builder and Engineer magazine called the original siting of the Pillar a "blunder" and asked for its removal.[73] This view was echoed by the Dublin Citizens Association,[74] and by the poet William Butler Yeats, now a member of the Irish Senate. While supporting the monument's removal from Sackville Street, Yeats favoured its re-erection elsewhere because "the life and work of the people who built it are part of our tradition."[16]
In 1924 Sackville Street was officially renamed "O'Connell Street".[75][n 8] In the following year the Dublin Metropolitan Police and the Dublin Civic Survey both demanded legislation to allow the Pillar's removal, without success.[74] Pressure continued, and in 1926 The Manchester Guardian reported that the Pillar was to be taken down, "as it was a hindrance to modern traffic".[77] Requests for action–removal, destruction or the replacement of the statue with that of an Irish hero—continued up to the Second World War and beyond; the main stumbling blocks remained the trustees' strict interpretation of the terms of the trust, and the lack of willingness of various Irish governments to take legislative action.[74][78] In 1936 the magazine of the ultra-nationalist Blueshirts movement remarked that this inactivity showed a failure in the national spirit: "The conqueror is gone, but the scars which he left remain, and the victim will not even try to remove them".[79]
"Man and boy I have lived in Dublin, on and off, for 68 years. When I was a young fellow we didn't talk about Nelson's Column or Nelson's Pillar, we spoke of the Pillar, and everyone knew what we meant".
Thomas Bodkin, 1955[80]
By 1949 the Irish Free State had evolved into the Republic of Ireland and left the British Commonwealth,[81] but not all Irish opinion favoured the removal of the Pillar. That year, architectural historian John Harvey in Dublin: A Study in Environment called it "a grand work", and argued that without it, "O'Connell Street would lose much of its vitality".[82] Much of the pressure he said, came from "traffic maniacs who ...fail to visualise the chaos which would result from creating a through current of traffic at this point".[82] In a 1955 radio broadcast Thomas Bodkin, the former director of the National Gallery of Ireland, praised not only the monument, but Nelson himself: "He was a man of extraordinary gallantry. He lost his eye fighting bravely, and his arm in a similar fashion".[80]
In 1956, a branch of the Fianna Fáil party, then in opposition, proposed that the statue be replaced by one of Robert Emmett, Protestant leader of an abortive rebellion in 1803. They thought that such a gesture might inspire Protestants in Northern Ireland to fight for a reunited Ireland.[83] In the North the possibility of dismantlement and re-erection of the monument in Belfast was raised in the Stormont parliament, but the initiative failed to gain the support of the Northern Ireland government.[84]
On 29 October 1955, a group of nine students from University College Dublin obtained keys from the Pillar's custodian and locked themselves inside, with an assortment of equipment including flame throwers. From the gallery they hung a poster of Kevin Barry, a Dublin Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer executed by the British during the War of Independence. A crowd gathered below, and began to sing the Irish rebel song "Kevin Barry". Eventually members of the Gardaí (Irish police) broke into the Pillar and ended the demonstration. No action was taken against the students, whose principal purpose, Gardaí claimed, was publicity.[85]
In 1959 a new Fianna Fáil government under Sean Lemass deferred the question of the Pillar's removal, on the grounds of cost; five years later he agreed to "look at" the question of replacing Nelson's statue with one of Patrick Pearse, the leader of the Easter Rising, in time for the 50th anniversary of the Rising in 1966.[86] At the same time, an offer from the Irish-born American trade union leader Mike Quill to finance the removal of the Pillar was not taken up, and as the anniversary approached, Nelson remained in place.[84]
Destruction
Shortly after 1.30 on the morning of 8 March 1966, a powerful explosion destroyed the upper portion of the Pillar and brought Nelson's statue crashing to the ground amid hundreds of tons of rubble.[87] O'Connell Street was almost deserted at the time, although a dance in the nearby Hotel Metropole's ballroom was about to end and bring crowds on to the street.[16] There were no casualties—a taxi-driver parked close by had a narrow escape—and damage to property was relatively light given the strength of the blast.[88] What was left of the Pillar was a jagged stump, 70 feet (21 m) high.[16]
There was, Kennedy believes, anger in the Irish government at what they considered was a distraction from the official 50th anniversary celebrations of the Rising.[87]In the first official statement on the action the Justice minister, Brian Lenihan, condemned what he described as "an outrage which was planned and committed without any regard to the lives of the citizens".[89] This response was considered "tepid" by The Irish Times, whose editorial deemed the attack "a direct blow to the prestige of the state and the authority of the government".[89]
"There was an air of inevitability about Horatio Nelson’s eventual demise; King William of Orange, King George II and Viscount Gough in the Phoenix Park had all fallen victim to republican bombings, while Queen Victoria had been rather unceremoniously dumped from her vantage point in Leinster House, removed on her back through the front gates."
Donal Fallon: "Dispelling the myths about the bombing of Nelson’s Pillar"[90]
The Pillar's destruction was regretted by some who felt that the city had lost one of its most prominent landmarks. The Irish Literary Association was anxious that, whatever future steps were taken, the lettering on the pedestal should be preserved; the Irish Times reported that the Royal Irish Academy of Music was considering legal measures to prevent removal of the remaining stump.[16] Reactions among the general public were relatively lighthearted, typified by the numerous songs inspired by the incident. These included the immensely popular "Up Went Nelson", set to the tune of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", which remained at the top of the Irish charts for eight weeks.[91] An American newspaper reported that the mood in the city was one of gaiety, with shouts of "Nelson has lost his last battle!"[92] Some accounts relate that the Irish president, Éamon de Valera, phoned The Irish Press to suggest the headline: "British Admiral Leaves Dublin By Air"[93]—according to the senator and presidential candidate David Norris, "the only recorded instance of humour in that lugubrious figure".[94]
The fate of the ruined Pillar was finally sealed when Dublin Corporation issued a "dangerous building" notice. The trustees then agreed that the stump should be removed.[16] A last-minute request by the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland for an injunction to delay the demolition on planning grounds was rejected by Justice Thomas Teevan.[95] On 14 March the Army destroyed the stump by a controlled explosion, watched at a safe distance by a crowd who, the press reported, "raised a resounding cheer".[96] There was a scramble for souvenirs, and many parts of the stonework were taken from the scene. Some of these relics, including Nelson's head, eventually found their way into museums;[n 9] parts of the lettered stonework from the pedestal are displayed in the grounds of the Butler House hotel in Kilkenny, while smaller remnants were used to decorate private gardens.[98] Many contemporary and subsequent accounts record that the army's explosion caused a great deal more damage than the first, but this, Fallon says, is a myth; damage claims arising from the second explosion amounted to less than a quarter of the sum claimed as a result of the original blast.[99][100]
Aftermath
The Nelson's Pillar Act was passed in 1969,[101][102] transferring responsibility for the site of the monument from the Nelson Pillar Trustees to Dublin Corporation. The site was simply paved over by the authorities until the Anna Livia monument was installed there for the 1988 Dublin Millennium celebrations. This was moved in 2001 to make way for the Spire of Dublin, erected in its place in 2003. In 2001, whilst the site was being excavated to prepare for the foundations of the spire, The Irish Times announced the discovery of a 200-year-old time capsule.[103] This, in fact, turned out to be the plaque recording the laying of the first stone in 1808 which had apparently been buried when the subterranean entrance to the pillar had been replaced by one at street level in 1894. It is now in the National Museum.[104]
On 23 April 2000, Liam Sutcliffe, from the suburb of Walkinstown, claimed[105] on the RTÉ radio programme Voices of the 20th Century that he was responsible for blowing up the monument. Sutcliffe is a republican supporter who has been linked in the past to the Official Sinn Féin movement. He maintained that in Operation Humpty Dumpty, the explosive used was a mixture of gelignite and ammonal. He declined to confirm his remarks when he received a visit at home from Garda Special Branch detectives four months after his radio interview in August. Then, on the morning of 21 September, he was arrested under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act and invited to repeat his allegations at Store Street Garda Station. His reluctance to do so while in custody resulted in his release without charge that night. The Gardaí prepared a file for review by the Director of Public Prosecutions to decide if the matter should be pursued further.
The identity of the bombers has been a source of speculation and conflicting claims of responsibility.
In popular culture
Within a matter of days of the blowing up of the pillar, a group of Belfast school teachers: Gerry Burns, Finbar Carrolan, John Sullivan and Eamonn McGirr, known as The Go Lucky Four, reached the top of the Irish music charts with "Up Went Nelson", a popular folk song set to the tune of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" which maintained the number one spot for eight consecutive weeks.
Other songs were:
- "Good Lord Nelson" by Tommy Makem
- "Nelson's Goodbye" by 'Galway Joe' Dolan, released as "Nelson's Farewell" by The Dubliners on their album Finnegan Wakes and as a single "Nelson's Farewell / The Foggy Dew", both in 1966.
See also
- Statues in Dublin
- Nelson's Column (London)
- Monuments and memorials to Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
Notes and references
Notes
- ^ In his later career Wilkins was responsible for the design of numerous major London buildings, including the National Gallery and University College London, and of a number of Cambridge University colleges.[25]
- ^ Johnston's later Dublin commissions included the General Post Office and additions to the Vice-regal Lodge.[30]
- ^ £6,500 in 1805 equates to about £500,000 in 2016, using the GDP deflator for capital projects.[33]
- ^ The recorded heights (rounded) of the various components were: plinth 30 ft 1 in.; column and capital 78 ft 3 in.; epistilion, being the base for the statue 12 ft 6 in.; statue 13 ft; total 134 ft 3 in.[37]
- ^ The inscriptions on each side were as follows: "ST. VINCENT XIV FEBRUARY MDCCXCVII" (west); "THE NILE I AUGUST MDCCXCVIII" (north); "COPENHAGEN II APRIL MDCCCI" (east); "TRAFALGAR XXI OCTOBER MDCCCV" (south). These refer to the following battles and their dates: Battle of Cape St Vincent (14 February 1797); Battle of the Nile (1-3 August 1798); Battle of Copenhagen (2 April 1801); and Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805).[38]
- ^ 10 old pence in 1809 equates to £2.70 in 2016, based on retail price index.[33]
- ^ These changes were made by Dublin architect George Palmer Beater (1850-1928).[56] The porch, with Nelson's name over the entrance, was made from "chiselled granite lined internally with white enamelled brick". In addition to this, gilding was added to the incised inscriptions on the pedestal and to Nelson's name.[57]
- ^ The change had first been proposed by Dublin Corporation in 1884, but had been rejected at the time by the street's residents.[76]
- ^ About ten days after the initial explosion Nelson's head was stolen from a corporation yard by students, as a fund-raising stunt. The head was exihibited, for a fee, at various locations including stage performance by The Dubliners and The Clancy Brothers. It crossed the Irish Sea, and was rented for display in a London antique shop. It was returned to Ireland in September 1966, ultimately finding a home in the the Dublin City Library and Archive in Pearse Street.[97][93]
Citations
- ^ Andrews and Coleman 2010.
- ^ Fallon 2014, pp. 1–2.
- ^ Hopkins 2002, p. 114.
- ^ a b Fallon 2014, p. 4.
- ^ Hunt 2014, pp. 125–27.
- ^ Kilfeather 2005, p. 54.
- ^ a b Hunt, p. 137.
- ^ Kennedy 2013, p. 7.
- ^ Stephens and Harding 2004.
- ^ Fallon 2014, pp. 5–7.
- ^ a b Fallon 2014, p. 8.
- ^ Kennedy 2013, pp. 7–8.
- ^ Rodger 2004.
- ^ Pakenham 1992, p. 337.
- ^ Fallon 2014, p. 24.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Ó Riain 1998.
- ^ Kennedy 2013, pp. 25–27.
- ^ Henchy 1948, p. 53.
- ^ Fallon 2014, p. 26.
- ^ Henchy 1948, p. 54.
- ^ Kennedy, pp. 3–4.
- ^ Fallon 2014, pp. 27–28.
- ^ Kennedy 2013, pp. 3–4.
- ^ Cumberland Column Conservation Report February 2009.
- ^ Liscombe 2009.
- ^ Kennedy 2013, p. 6.
- ^ Kennedy 2013, pp. 6–8.
- ^ a b Kennedy 2013, p. 15.
- ^ a b Kennedy 2013, pp. 10–11.
- ^ Cust and Bagshaw 2008.
- ^ Henchy 1948, p. 59.
- ^ Kilfeather 2005, p. 260.
- ^ a b MeasuringWorth 2016.
- ^ a b Kennedy 2013, pp. 16–17.
- ^ Fallon 2014, pp. 28–30.
- ^ a b c Henchy 1948, pp. 56–57.
- ^ a b Warburton, Whitelaw and Walsh 1818, pp. 1102–03.
- ^ a b Warburton, Whitelaw and Walsh 1818, p. 1101.
- ^ Fallon 2014, p. 33.
- ^ Fallon 2014, p. 32.
- ^ Kennedy 2013, p. 20.
- ^ Webb: A Compendium of Irish Biography 1878.
- ^ Henchy 1948, p. 60.
- ^ Kennedy 2013, p. 30.
- ^ Thackeray 1911, p. 22.
- ^ Kennedy 2013, p. 18.
- ^ Kennedy 2013, p. 47.
- ^ Kennedy 2013, p. 37.
- ^ Lord Mayors of Dublin 1665–2015.
- ^ Fallon 2015, p. 42.
- ^ Kennedy 2013, p. 38.
- ^ Henchy 1948, p. 61.
- ^ Fallon 2014, p. 44.
- ^ Kennedy 2013, p. 41.
- ^ Henchy 1948, p. 57.
- ^ "Beater, George Palmer" Dictionary of Irish Architects.
- ^ "Design for entrance and railings" 2015.
- ^ Fallon 2014, pp. 45–46.
- ^ Whelan 2014, p. 94.
- ^ Fallon 2014, pp. 53–54.
- ^ Townshend 2006, p. 184.
- ^ Fallon 2014, pp. 55–56.
- ^ Kennedy 2013, pp. 43–44.
- ^ De Rosa 1990, pp. 350.
- ^ De Rosa 1990, pp. 351.
- ^ Townshend 2006, p. 266.
- ^ De Rosa 1990, pp. 358–59.
- ^ Shaw 1916, p. 6.
- ^ Fallon 2014, p. 61.
- ^ Fallon 2014, p. 57.
- ^ "The Partition of Ireland".
- ^ Fallon 2014, p. 65.
- ^ The Irish Builder and Engineer 30 June 1923, p. 497.
- ^ a b c Kennedy 2013, pp. 44–45.
- ^ Casey, p. 212.
- ^ Casey 2005, p. 212.
- ^ The Manchester Guardian 26 March 1926, p. 9.
- ^ Fallon 2014, pp. 68–69, 71–72.
- ^ Fallon 2014, pp. 70–71, quoting from The Blueshirt, 1 March 1935.
- ^ a b Fallon 2014, p. 77.
- ^ De Rosa 1990, p. 505.
- ^ a b Harvey 1949, p. 31.
- ^ Fallon 2014, p. 72.
- ^ a b Fallon 2014, pp. 74–75.
- ^ Fallon 2014, pp. 87–89.
- ^ Kennedy 2013, pp. 47–48.
- ^ a b Kennedy 2013, pp. 50–51.
- ^ Fallon 2014, p. 94.
- ^ a b The Irish Times 9 March 1966.
- ^ Fallon 2016.
- ^ Fallon 2014, pp. 114–16.
- ^ Fallon 2014, p. 96.
- ^ a b Fleming 2016.
- ^ O'Riordan 2016.
- ^ The Guardian 15 March 1966.
- ^ The Irish Times 14 March 1966.
- ^ Fallon 2014, pp. 107–11.
- ^ Fallon 2014, pp. 106–13.
- ^ Fallon 2014, p. 99.
- ^ "A colonel writes..." 19 March 2006.
- ^ [1] The Nelson Pillar Bill
- ^ [2] Dáil debate on Nelson Pillar Bill, 1969: Second and Subsequent Stages
- ^ Irish Times, 4/10/2007.
- ^ Dedication Plaque Dedication plaque found in the foundation stone of Nelson's Pillar, O'Connell Street, Dublin – Margaret Gowen & Co Ltd., 4 October 2001.
- ^ Irish Independent, 22 September 2000
Sources
Books
- Casey, Christine (2005). The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin. New Haven CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-10923-7.
{{cite book}}
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(help) - De Rosa, Peter (1990). Rebels: The Irish Rising of 1916. London: Bantam Press. ISBN 978-0-59301-751-7.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Fallon, Donal (2014). The Pillar: The Life and Afterlife of the Nelson Pillar. Dublin: New Island Books. ISBN 978-1-84840-326-0.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Harvey, John (1949). Dublin: A Study in Environment. London: Batsford. OCLC 364729.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Hopkins, Frank (2002). Rare Old Dublin: Heroes, Hawkers & Hoors. Dublin: Mercier Press. ISBN 1-86023-150-0.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Hunt, Tristram (2014). Ten Cities That Made an Empire. London: Allen Lane. ISBN 978-1-846-14325-0.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Kennedy, Dennis (2013). Dublin's Fallen Hero. Belfast: Ormeau Books. ISBN 978-0-9572564-1-5.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Kilfeather, Siobhán Marie (2005). Dublin: a Cultural History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-518201-9.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Pakenham, Thomas (1992). The Year of Liberty: The History of the Great Irish Rebellion of 1798. London: Phoenix Books. ISBN 978-1-85-799050-8.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Thackeray, William Makepeace (1911). Irish Sketchbook of 1842. New York: Charles Scribner.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Townshend, Charles (2006). Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-141-01216-2.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Warburton, J.; Whitelaw, J.; Walsh, Robert (1818). History of the City of Dublin from the Earliest Accounts to the Present time. Vol. II. London: T. Cadell and W. Davies.
- Whelan, Yvonne (2014). "Landscape and Politics". In Jackson, Alvin (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-954934-4.
{{cite encyclopedia}}
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(help)
Newspapers and journals
- "Architects fail to save Pillar". The Guardian. 15 March 1966. p. 3.
- "Crowds Cheer as Army Blows Up Nelson Pillar". The Irish Times. 14 March 1966. p. 1.
- "Editorial note". The Irish Builder and Engineer: 497. 30 June 1923.
- Henchy, Patrick (1948). "Nelson's Pillar". Dublin Historical Record. 10 (2). Old Dublin Society: 53–63.
{{cite journal}}
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(help) - Hickman, Baden (9 March 1966). "Guards on Monuments aftert Dublin Explosion". The Guardian. p. 6.
- "Lenihan Condemns Pillar "Outrage"". The Irish Times. 9 March 1966. p. 1.
- "Nelson to Leave Sackville Street". The Manchester Guardian. 26 March 1926. p. 9. (subscription required)
- Ó Riain, Micheál (Winter 1998). "Nelson's Pillar". History Ireland. 6 (4). Retrieved 5 March 2016.
{{cite journal}}
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(help) - O'Riordan, Billy (7 March 2016). "The Fall of Nelson's Column Recalled...50 Years On". The Irish Examiner. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
{{cite news}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Shaw, G. Bernard (26 July 1916). "Some Neglected Morals of the Irish Rising". Maoriland Worker (New Zealand). 7 (284).
{{cite journal}}
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(help) {This article first appeared in The New Statesman, 6 May 1916)
Online
- "1894 – Design for entrance and railings, Nelson's Pillar, Dublin". archiseek. 2015. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
- "A Colonel Writes..." Independent.ie. 19 March 2006. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
- Andrews, H.; Coleman, J. (2010). "Luke Gardiner". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 3 March 2016. (subscription required)
- "Beater, George Palmer". Dictionary of Irish Architects. Irish Architectural Archive. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
{{cite web}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=
(help) - Cust, L.H.; Bagshaw, Kaye (2008). "Johnston, Francis". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online edition. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
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: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=
(help)(subscription required) - Fallon, Donal (March 2016). "Dispelling the myths about the bombing of Nelson's Pillar". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
{{cite web}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - "Five Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a UK Pound Amount, 1270 to Present". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
- Fleming, Diarmaid (12 March 2016). "The Man who Blew Up Nelson". BBC Magazine. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
{{cite web}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Howley Hayes Architects (February 2009). "The Cumberland Column, Birr, Co. Offally: Conservation Report" (PDF). Contae Uíbh Fhailí County Council. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
- Liscombe, R. Windsor (2009). "Wilkins, William". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online edition. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
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(help) (subscription required) - "Lord Mayors of Dublin 1665–2015" (PDF). Dublin City Council. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- Rodger, N.A.M. (2008). "Nelson, Horatio". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online edition. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
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(help) (subscription required) - Stephens, H.M.; Harding, Richard (2008). "Blakeney, William". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online edition. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
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(help) (subscription required) - "The Partition of Ireland". Borderlands. Queen Mary College, University of London. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
- Webb, Alfred. "Walter Cox". Library Ireland from A Compendium of Irish Biography, Dublin 1878. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
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(help)
External links
- Nelson Pillar, 50th anniversary commemoration account, including numerous Pillar images taken before and after the bombing (Old Dublin Town)
- Head in the Sand, personal eyewitness account of the students with the head of the Pillar's Nelson statue at Kilkenny Strand (Pól Ó Duibhir)
- The night Nelson’s Pillar fell and changed Dublin, includes photograph of the controlled demolition (The Irish Times)