The Pictures of Dublin: O'Connell Street

O'Connell Monument
on O'Connell Street facing O'Connell Bridge

O’Connell Street was previously called Sackville Street. It was renamed in 1924 in honour of Irish “Liberator” and “Great Emancipator” Daniel O’Connell.

Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847) was an political leader who campaigned for the rights of Catholics to be restored after many restrictions under British rule in Ireland, such as the Penal Laws. In 1815, he was challenged to a duel, for not apologizing after criticizing the overwhelmingly-Protestant Dublin Corporation. He mortally wounded his opponent and, horrified at the consequence, paid an allowance to his daughter for the rest of his life.

It took 20 years for the O’Connell monument to be raised. A subscription for it was only started in 1862 and donations came from all over Ireland and abroad.. It’s over 12 metres high and made of bronze, with granite plinth and limestone base. The Irish sculptor JH Foley worked on it, until his death in 1874. His assistant Thomas Brock had to complete the work: shoes, details on frieze and the 4 winged victories around the plinth. The monument was unveiled, without the winged figures, in 1882 to an enormous crowd of supporters. It was all completed by 1886.

The circular frieze, in the middle part, features more than thirty figures. The Maid of Erin (aka Ireland) is holding the 1829 Act of Catholic Emancipation and is pointing to O’Connell himself - around her feet, the chains are broken. There are a farmer, a bishop with a crosier, a lawyer wearing a wig, other traders and professionals….

The coats of arms are for the 4 traditional provinces of Ireland:

the red hand of Ulster (the northern part) >

the harp (Leinster),

the three crowns (Munster) – unfortunately barriers stopped me from taking a picture of the fourth one (Connaught).

The winged figures are representations of O’Connell’s virtues: Patriotism, Courage, Fidelity (with a dog, an Irish Wolfhound, at her feet), Eloquence (with paperwork on her lap). They bear bullet marks from the war of independence.

The statue of Daniel O’Connell at the top is 3.6 metres high.

The monument was restored in 2005.

O’Connell Street is half a kilometre long. Its width is 49 metres at the southern end, 3 metres wider than at the northern end.

Although designed in the 18^th century and redeveloped in the early 19^th to become one of the grandest avenues in Europe, most of the buildings date from the 1920s and 1930s, due to the bombardment and fighting during the 1916 Easter Rising which led to the War of Independence. There was then more fighting and destruction in 1922 during the Irish Civil War.

Lower O’Connell Street still has a few neoclassical buildings in the 1918-23 reconstruction period. They are made of Irish granite, limestone, red brick and Portland stone with copper domes and cupolas.

Unfortunately, in the 1970s and 1980s, bad planning regulations made it possible for historic buildings to be demolished and many tacky outlets to take over.

The Spire of Dublin

Since the late 1990s, the City Council has worked to restrain this tendency and O’Connell Street is now an Architectural Conservation Area and an Area of Special Planning Control. Major work started in 2002: the pavements to each side were widened, while the wide middle footpath has been narrowed, the 3 lanes of vehicular traffic, each way, have been reduced to 2 lanes each way, plane trees have been removed and replaced by other species.

Although all that work was finished, there is currently more road works to add a line for the tram.

The tram network is called Luas, which means “speed” in Irish. It has been operational In Dublin since 2004, but so far there were only two routes. The tram on O’Connell Street will only travel in one direction.

There had been tramways here from the mid-19th century until 1949, run by a company whose logo was nicknamed

The Flying Snail 😊

O’Connell Bridge and Street, circa 1900:

the white statue of William Smith O’Brien in its original place,

the double-decker trams, Nelson’s Pillar

< Statue of William Smith O’Brien (1803-64) Irish Member of Parliament, deported to Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) for sedition, later pardoned. He encouraged the use of the Irish language. (Monument: 1870)

Statue of Sir John Gray (1815-75) Irish physician, newspaper owner, Member of Parliament. Nationalist, he supported O’Connell and Parnell. He is saluted for the completion of a water reservoir that helped bring clean water to the city. (Monument: 1879, white Sicilian marble)

The GPO, Jim Larkin, The Spire

Statue of Jim Larkin (1874-1947) trade unionist. James Larkin has been the subjects of poems, songs and other writings. The year of birth on the plinth was changed from “1876” although many sources still quote it differently. (Monument 1980: bronze by Oisín Kelly)

The other renowned statue on O’Connell Street is the 1911 monument to, probably, the most influential Irish Member of Parliament, Charles Parnell - at the northern end, with a tall obelisk

(not pictured here).

The GPO and Nelson's Pillar in 1916

The General Post Office (GPO) was seized by Irish rebels during the Easter Rising against the British rulers in 1916. The insurgents proclaimed the Irish Republic but the building was attacked and went on fire. They had to abandon it. In fact, only the façade and portico survived. The rest was rebuilt (1924-29).

The front dates from 1818: neoclassical style, 67 metres in length (granite), portico in Portland stone, statues behind the pediments are Mercury (left), Hibernia/Ireland with a harp (centre), Fidelity with a dog (right).

The area in front of the GPO is now a little plaza, with The Spire of Dublin, on the site of a 36 metre-high column that was topped with a statue of Admiral Nelson, called Nelson’s Pillar (blown up by Republicans in 1966).

The Spire of Dublin, or Monument of Light, is the world’s tallest public artwork. 120 metres high. Stainless steel. Its English architect, Ian Ritchie explained, “The Spire was inspired by the ever-changing light and composition of the Irish skies.” Manufactured in County Waterford. €4 million. Installed in 2003.

3 metres in diameter at the base, only 15 cm at the apex. The cone is in sections, all hollow with tuned mass dampers to ensure aerodynamic stability during a wind storm

😲

It actually sways gently with the wind.

The surface of the upper part has been shot-peened (blasted with metal) to create roughness so that the light scatters on reflection - “During the day it softly reflect the sky, “ said the architect, so it was grey…

The lower 10 metres have a mirror polished pattern inspired from the rock strata beneath the site and the shape of DNA’s double helix structure. I recognised it straight away

😹

At night, the base is gently lit and the tip illuminated.

The statue of James Joyce (1882-1941), by Irish sculptor Marjorie Fitzgibbon, is on North Earl Street.

He now glances at The Spire, where there used to be the 1988 Anna Livia bronze sculpture and water feature. Anna Livia Plurabelle is a character is Joyce’s novel Finnegans Wake, symbolising the River Liffey.