1967 – Wolfe Tone Memorial, St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin
Sculptor: Edward Delaney R.H.A
The son of a Church of Ireland coach-maker who briefly considered an acting career as a young man, Theobald Wolfe Tone rose to become the leader of the 1798 Irish Rebellion and is widely regarded as the father of Irish republicanism.
The Wolfe Tone Memorial at the northwest corner of St. Stephen’s Green was crafted by the noted Irish sculptor Edward Delaney R.H.A and architect Noel Keating. The awkward and slightly cumbersome stance of Tone’s figure is intended to evoke the lack of resolution in Irish nationalist history with the failure of the United Irishman Rebellion of 1798. Unveiled by President de Valera in 1967, the figure is 3 metres high with a backdrop comprising a curved line of roughly hewn granite monoliths.
Due to its political significance to Irish Republicanism, it became a strategic target at the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. In 1971, a group of Loyalists managed to plant and detonate a bomb that blew the sculpture into several pieces. Delaney managed to re-cast the fragments of the damaged sculpture and restore it to its previous location just a few months later.
Published September 12, 2024