Daniel O’Connell Memorial

There are many statues and monuments on O’Connell Street with that of Daniel ‘The Liberator‘ O’Connell (1775-1847) being a most wonderful piece. Having done so much for the cause of Irish freedom it was no surprise that he should be honoured in such a grand style, and the story behind the memorial’s completion is a very interesting one indeed.

Daniel ‘OConnell Memorial

Shortly after O’Connell’s death a committee was setup to raise funds for the creation of a memorial to The Liberator, and it soon raised over £8,000. A two-ton granite stone, cut from the quarry in Dalkey, was put in place on the 8^th August 1862, by the Lord Mayor, Peter McSwiney. Later, a competition was held for design of the memorial with a closing date of 1^st January 1865. However, none of the designs were acceptable to the committee which was headed by Sir John Gray, and he contacted John Henry (JH) Foley (the Dublin-born sculptor) who was then living and working in London. There were protests against the possible transfer of funds out of Ireland ‘for the execution of an undertaking which, above all others, should be thoroughly national, and as the monument originated from Irish hearts, so it should be sculptured by none other than Irish hands.’

Foley agreed to having an Irish architect submit designs that he might use in the memorial, and in a progress report to the committee in August 1871 said that the work would be completed by 1875 – the centenary of O’Connell’s birth. However, it was not to be as Foley died in 1874 and Thomas Brock, his assistant, was officially appointed to complete the memorial four years later.

The Liberator

The memorial is 40 feet high with the statue of O’Connell being 12 feet tall. Below it there is a frieze where the Maid of Erin points up to her liberator, while in her other hand she holds the 1829 Catholic Emancipation Act. Finally, there are the four winged victories representing the virtues attributed to O’Connell – patriotism, courage, eloquence and fidelity. It was unveiled on the 15^th August 1882.

The Druid’s Chair

If you go down to the woods today you may find…

It was with this thought in mind that I made my way to Killiney Heath (just off Killiney Avenue) in anticipation of seeing something that, up until a few days before, I had no idea existed. Past the large stone on the right-hand side of the road with Killiney Heath carved on it, I stepped onto a small path and entered the sun-drenched copse.

The Druid’s Chair

Slipping past the remnant of an old gate I was suddenly in a very quiet little area, and a few yards further along I came upon some very large, cut stones. I had read that they belonged to Bronze Age cairns that once stood there, possibly surrounded by a Stone Circle where druids might have held ceremonies. It was an interesting thought, and standing there in the silence, it was not difficult to imagine those white-robed, ancient priests looking to the heavens as they chanted prayers for a good harvest.

Beyond the stones is the Druid’s Chair, and a fine piece  it is too. There is much discussion as to its authenticity as some believe it to be nothing more than a Victorian-era folly. Whatever it may be it is an intriguing piece of local history (that, of course, gives its name to the local pub) and one worth checking out.

And speaking of ancient stones there are a few more in the vicinity. Why not check out the Ballybrack Dolmen, a most pleasing piece of work that is close to Ballybrack village and which has been there for more than three thousand years! A little further away, in Cabinteely Park, there is a much bigger dolmen which is often referred to as the Brennanstown Portal Tomb. This stands over eleven feet high, and the capstone is estimated to weigh fifty tons. How did people manage to get a stone that heavy into such a position, I mused, but no answer came. One day, maybe, one day.

Ballybrack Dolmen

James Joyce’s Houses

If James Joyce was familiar with anything he certainly knew what it was like to change address. From the time he was born – 2^nd February 1882 – he and his family lived a peripatetic existence moving from one house to another, sometimes only staying in a place for a few months. This downward spiral was due to his father’s misuse of money and his increasing consumption of alcohol.

41 Brighton Square, Rathgar

There are at least eighteen addresses recorded before James Joyce decided to leave Dublin in 1904 with Nora Barnacle, and begin a new life in Europe. Three addresses of note are: 41 Brighton Square, Rathgar; 7 St Peter’s Road, Phibsborough and the Martello Tower in Sandycove.

James Joyce was born at 41 Brighton Square, Rathgar, a new and fashionable neighbourhood in the southwest of the city. By 1884, however, the pattern of ‘upping sticks’ and moving on had begun with each subsequent house reflecting Joyce senior’s dwindling finances.

By 1902 the family arrived at 7 St. Peter’s Road, Phibsborough. And it was here that Joyce’s mother, May, died, something that troubled him greatly for the rest of his life. He uses it in Ulysses where Stephen Dedalus ponders the loss of his mother and the burden it is to him. A plaque on the front of the house says, ‘The Family Home of James Joyce, author of Ulysses, 1902-1904’.

In the summer of 1904 he was invited by a friend, Oliver St. John Gogarty, to share his new abode in Sandycove. Gogarty had just rented the vacant Martello Tower and needed another paying tenant to cover the bills. Joyce moved in on the 9^th September but left on the 14^th. Gogarty reckoned that Joyce’s departure was due to an incident that involved a loaded gun late one night. However traumatised Joyce was from the experience he still deemed the place important enough to set the opening scene of his magnum opus on the roof as Buck Mulligan and Stephen Dedalus take in the view of Dublin Bay.

Martello Tower, Sandycove

Butt Bridge

The bridge that is used by thousands each day is the second such bridge to have been built on the site. The original, completed in 1879, was a steel construction with a central swivel section which opened to allow ships to travel further upstream. Ships had to pay a fee to have the bridge opened, but this practice ceased in 1888 when shipping stopped at the quays to the east with a collapse in money collected. The bridge, however, had the distinction of being the most easterly on the Liffey for ninety-nine years before the Talbot Memorial bridge opened in 1978.

Butt Bridge

The bridge is named after Isaac Butt, who was born in Glenfin, Donegal in 1813. He was a barrister and Trinity College Professor of Political Economy (1836-41) before getting involved in local politics as a member of Dublin Corporation. Later, he represented Youghal and Limerick as an MP in Westminster’s House of Commons. He was a wonderful orator and, although a Conservative by tradition,  he took up the cause of Irish Nationalism having been disgusted with the government’s handling of The Famine. He was also dismayed by the treatment of the Young Irelanders following the short-lived and ultimately failed rebellion in 1848. ‘Are our best and bravest spirits ever to be carried away under this system of constantly defeated revolts?’ he asked, and subsequently became known as the Father of Home Rule. He was also a writer and a co-founder of the Dublin University Magazine when he was only twenty years old. A bon vivant and serial seducer he didn’t manage money well and once spent more than a year in the Debtor’s Prison on Thomas Street.

Isaac Butt

Construction of the current bridge began in 1930 and was completed in June 1932 at a cost of £65,500. And due to the poor state of the nation’s finances in the aftermath of the Civil War it was decided that cut stone would be too expensive, so Butt Bridge became the first reinforced concrete bridge to be erected across the Liffey.