Public Art

i like those statues on dame street in front of trinity. very folklorish and oirish

spire, calder in tcd, thomas davis fountain, famine memorial, the diving bell, the behan sailor, whoops, the last three are on my cycle home, that might be affecting my choice.

The Davis and Tone memorials were by the same sculpture…. (Edward Delaney?….maybe wrong) Its a shame about those fountains and poor old Wolfe Tone looks a little lost in all that paving on the Green.

Whatever about Wolfe Tone’s statue at St Stephen’s Green and the Four Provinces and Thomas Davis at College Green, I think it was intended to depict them in such a modern style of the time…..hence their distorted appearance. A classical statue to Tone maybe would have done the great man more justice and him substituted on Nelson’s plinth could have been the answer.
However the Molly Malone statue by Jean Rynhart with it’s quirky Post Modernism and bad bodily proportions is kinda odd. Maybe it was the sculptress intentions but all of her figures have the same features. No doubt Alan D will be on expounding it’s wonderful and unique merits.
The Joyce statue by Majorie Fitzgibbons is good and there is to be a new statue to that great drinker, rogue and man of letters Brendan Behan unveiled along the banks of the canal….like Paddy Kavanagh’s.

Don’t forget too the comical little usher at the cinema by Vincent Browne……a one time lecturer of mine in COMAD.

I really like that statue… its the best thing about a crap space.

Also…. if its not too far back…the Parnell Monument..very statesman-like. Its a shame more is not made of it.

true, i forgot the usher which i like a lot and i forgot wilde in color marble which is great too. nothing for beckett apart from the plaque by the onometer on the pier, maybe there should be something done for the centerary. the new plaza by the enterance to the castle is supposed to have a subterranian room viewed from the pavement and earmarked for a bloomdays tribute, always thought it sounded more suitable for a beckett tribute myself.

Behan to get statue honour
02/10/2003; The Mirror; TOM TUITE

BRENDAN Behan is finally to be honoured by his home city, almost 40 years after his death.

Dublin City Council has announced plans to erect a statue in memory of the playwright known as the Quare Fella who died in March 1964.

Artist John Coll, who created the Patrick Kavanagh memorial, will design the Behan statue which is to be given a place of honour at Binns Bridge, near Dorset Street.

The statue will see Behan, who would have been 80 this year, sitting on a bench on the banks of the Royal Canal.

What a dull derivative idea. Give him a statue holding a pint outside Gills on the North Circular (or are we to give in to the PC brigade – don’t want to encourage drinking do we)

Originally posted by GregF
The statue will see Behan, who would have been 80 this year, sitting on a bench on the banks of the Royal Canal.

How unimaginative. Copy what was done for Kavanagh on the Grand Canal. The pint idea sounds far better.

I agree…. at least Kavanagh’s bench was what he asked for….’ honour me with no hero courageous tomb’… Something irreverant and controversial for Mr Behan I think…. but please lets keep tacky Guinness sponsorship out of it.

How about having him lying on the bench…..

Its a bit obscure at the moment because of all the construction work, but the Jim Larkin Monument on O’Connell St. is absolutely spectacular, inspiring and forever moving.

Its the most animated of all Irish Statues.

This wins hands down! (or hands up in his case!)

See link
http://www.irelandposters.com/dublin/jim_larkin_statue.html

How about having him looking flushed while ogling little boys diving into the canal on a hot summer afternoon

BTW The Oscar Wilde statue is sort of interesting in an OTT way, not inappropriately

Oscar Wilde statue is great it really suits the character of Wilde. The same applies to the Joyce statue on Noth Earl Street and Kavanagh on his bench (appropriate for Kavanagh). But Behan on a bench is a no-no.

What next a statue of Sean O’Casey on a bench outside the Abbey, or Bram Stoker on a bench at Marino! Show some imagination folks.

This is turning into a Cow-parade of poets

The Famine Memorial is very poignant and wonderfully ‘accessible’ and of a human scale.

Burke and Goldsmith’ statues outside Trinity’s West Front I think are the finest classical statues in the city.

And Parnell of course – although I always thought that the acres of gold text, although facinating in content, is a bit naff asthetically.

The Famine Memorial is very poignant and wonderfully ‘accessible’ and of a human scale.

Burke and Goldsmith’ statues outside Trinity’s West Front I think are the finest classical statues in the city.

And Parnell of course – although I always thought that the acres of gold text, although facinating in content, is a bit naff asthetically.

Does anyone know why Parnell is wearing two coats?

I love the text on the Parnell and Larkin monuments, it always makes me feel hopeful that we celebrate these sentiments on our main street.