Old statue in Stephens Green

Morlan, It was a statue of King George II. It was erected in 1758 and blown up in May 1937.

It was definitely a republican statement of some sort, but I am not sure exactly who it was. A good book on all of that sort of thing is ‘Reinventing Modern Dublin: Streetscape, Iconograpy and the Politics of Identity’ by Yvonne Whelan. It is available in Hodges and Figges as far as I know.

Morlan,

From what I could find out it probably was destroyed by the IRA but can’t be 100% certain. It was just one of a rake of statues that met with a similar fate post-1922.
The site was later considered for a statue to Thomas Davis – this was eventually erected on College Green.

It was destroyed on May 13, 1937, the day after the coronation of King George VI, the monument was destroyed in an explosion.

From the Irish Times:

Early yesterday morning the statue of King George the second in St. Stephen’s Green Dublin was blown up by an explosive surreptitiously placed in position during the night. (Only the day before the newly crowned King, and the Queen were driving through north London where they were received with great enthusiasm)… Shortly after eight o’clock… a deafening explosion shattered the quiet of St. Stephen’s Green, wrecking many windows in the surrounding houses and causing a good deal of distress among residents and passers-by. The bronze equestrian statue of King George the second and which stood in the centre of the Green since 1758 was blown to pieces and fragments of the granite were hurled thirty yards away.

Hope this helps!
Yvonne.

Poor old George went the way of many of his relatives then. King Billy met a similar fate on College Green while Victoria was sent packing to the penal colony of New South Wales. She now graces the entrance to the QVC Shopping Mall in Sydney.

In fact of all our royal statues only Prince Albert remains in his spot on Leinster Carpark… I mean Lawn.

Its interesting that none of our Republican leaders (at least as far as I am aware) have been immoralised in bronze on the streets of the capital or any other city/town. By leaders I mean presidents or taoisigh rather than the 1916 variety.

Imagine how bizarre it would be to have George there today, look how pompous and ceremonial he is, and how utterly pointless it would be today, what a pity it’s gone, as well as the many others.

Interesting to see the symbol of Establishment, the Shelbourne, looming in the background there t.
And as I always wondered, there’s a floor missing to the rear of the building that’s there today. I always wondered if it was a later addition because the brickwork is much newer looking, and the original cornice is still there at the join.

Nice to see those fountain thingies there too, do they date from the Guinness’s development of the Green? They look a bit later, with a kind of Edwardian pleasure garden aspect to them.

How disgusting of the IRA to blow that up. That scumbag organisation, not content with murdering and maiming people in the name of Irish freedom, also took it upon itself to erase part of our architectural heritage in pursuit of its dim-witted fascistic attempt to create a united Ireland.
Much as I like the Spire, O’Connell Street looked far better with Nelson’s Pillar.
Grrrrr

u have to be jokin’…..
what utter nonsense

I would say the exact opposite – I wouldn’t mind in the slightest having George looking down at me, or Nelson.
And say the opposite with regard to the appearance of the Pillar too, it was an ugly, cumbersome yoke, who’s base was a horrendous in scale and design.

And the continuity graphic on RTE One where the Pillar morphs into the Spike most conveniently forgets the equally nasty caging surrounding the top to stop people jumping off.
(other than that it’s very accurate)

Whereas it should never have been removed for the huge social and historical aspects to it, I can’t help feeling glad that such an intimidating structure is now gone – with the benefit of lacking an emotional attachment to it.

Originally posted by Graham Hickey

And the continuity graphic on RTE One where the Pillar morphs into the Spike most conveniently forgets the equally nasty caging surrounding the top to stop people jumping off.
(other than that it’s very accurate)

It also conveniently forgets to include the Baileys advertisement billboard on the corner of O’Connell Street and Batchelors walk!

Morlan: I think that no matter how beautiful the monument was it would have to have been removed at some stage – it being a symbol of Ireland under British rule etc.

USING THAT ANALYSIS, MORLAN, WE SHOULD BULLDOZER DUBLIN CASTLE, THE WELLINGTON MONUMENT IN THE PHOENIX PARK, LEINSTER HOUSE ETC. ETC. GET REAL!

Hypothetically Sue, if a beautiful giant statue of Oliver Cromwell graced the centre of O’Connell Street today, would you be more concerned about its visual impact or its sybolic impact

ITS VISUAL IMPACT. THE EASY SOLUTION IS TO TAKE CROMWELL OFF AND PUT SOMEONE ELSE ON – THAT’S WHAT SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED WITH NELSON. YOU DON’T JUST GO AROUND THE PLACE BLOWING STUFF UP – UNLESS YOU’RE THE FASCIST IRA, OF COURSE

ER, COULD SOMEONE EXPLAIN TO ME HOW YOU PASTE OTHER PEOPLE’S QUOTES INTO YOUR SUBMIT REPLY!

:confused:

Yeah… how did the Wellington Monument escape unharmed? Is Phoenix Park too far away for semtex or something…?

Anyone who is interested in this thread should really go and read Yvonne Whelans excellent book that I mentioned earlier. It would save all the speculation amongst us about what happened, or didn’t happen to various monuments around Dublin. For example she describes in detail any attempts which were made to deface the Wellington monument in the Phoenix Park. I would feel guilty plagerising anything from her book just to answer some of the questions being asked here.

Thanks

Phil 🙂

Originally posted by Sue
– UNLESS YOU’RE THE FASCIST IRA, OF COURSE

we would still be living under british rule were it not for these facist heroes. the fact that when the when the ira disbanded the provo’s took their place and to a large extent the old name has nothing to do with it. please lets not confuse this. 😉
now, i know dublin was (and to a large extent still is in the rest of ireland) regarded as a provincial british city they were presumably getting rid of the yoke of oppression to give a better feeling to the people towards the republic and seperation from the commonwealth which dubliners were particularly wary of and still are if berties attempt to get us back into it is any judge. sue, i presume from ur posts that u may be in agrerement with his proposal.

As Phil suggests, in actual fact some of the monuments in the Phoenix Park were blown up – Lord Gough, the Earl of Carlisle, while the Wellington monuments was defaced on a number of occasions. It’s all too easy to get a little intemperate when talkng about the blowing up of these monuments – the fact is that for many newly independent states re-writing the iconography of the landscape is almost a rite of passage, although recent events in Budapest perhaps demonstrate a more imaginative way of dealing with the legacy of colonialism – the Statue Park in Budapest is where the authorities brought many of the old monuments of the communist period.

Yvonne