The Spike
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Personally I think the corpo had a lot to answer for, the pillar was up 44 years after independence 1922-1966, with the Admiral up there, why didn’t they re-name it.. the Dublin Pillar and take him down……..?
Not that i agree with the ‘IRA’/Army blowing it up.. Corpo being lazy as usual… usually takes em 44 years to do anything…
Even so, with all the city’s attachments to the pillar and want it mentto the people of Dublin etc, I’m glad it is gone from a purely asthetic point of view. It was the 19th century’s Hawkins House, a ghastly stout cumbersome doric pillar, that was grossly top heavy, further exacerbated by the addition of double height railings/protective caging in the 20th century.
It’s base being a terrible Stalinist block of stone the size of a 3 bed-semi, unadorned, and hugely out of scale with the Street,
and wasn’t a patch on the elegant slender profile of London’s corinthian Nelson Column, which was exquisitly scaled & decorated.I remember now Stephen C about William, from that painting in the Ntl Gallery, of the Volenteers on College Green, where was the statue of Victoria?
Where the plinth is now in front of Leinster House. It used to be a semi formal garden until the cars came along…..
It might have been wise to dedicate the pillar to someone else, but where do you stop this architectural revisionism?
People seem happy enough to keep the name for the Wellington Monument without feeling their Irishness under threat.
Funny how we haven’t had a sustained campaign of blowing up old Brit postboxes by the IRA since independence. Presumably they don’t mind using them to send letter bombs.
By the way, I can’t get them smiley face things to work when I want to show I’m half-joking…!Graham – the equestrian statue was of William III and was where the Thomas Davis statue is now…opposite Ulster Bank on College Green
Originally posted by AndrewP
It might have been wise to dedicate the pillar to someone else, but where do you stop this architectural revisionism?
People seem happy enough to keep the name for the Wellington Monument without feeling their Irishness under threat.
Funny how we haven’t had a sustained campaign of blowing up old Brit postboxes by the IRA since independence. Presumably they don’t mind using them to send letter bombs.
By the way, I can’t get them smiley face things to work when I want to show I’m half-joking…!thats a shame Andrew becuase i half expect one after every post :);)
anyhow, I think some people may have a dislike of wellington (mostly if not exclusively for his horse/stable comment) but i think youll find attitudes toward a(n) (irish born) character of that sort would differ to those toward th british monarch and King William….
*No smileys*
C.
Back when Michael Collins was being filmed there was a mockup of Queen Vic on a horse in the middle of Dame Street (made of ply-wood).
I agree with people here, use Richie’s name. It is utterly silly to build a monument, then decide what it’s a monument to.
James
That paintng of College Green in the National Gallery I think has the statue of William of Orange which used to be there and who’s garbed in Caesar attire.
The Eiffel Tower analogy is apt, not because it is a similar structure, but because everyone has forgotten its original political purpose: to commemorate the centenary of the French Revolution.
Even when it was being designed and built, it was referred to as the Eiffel Tower.
But the “Ritchie Tower”? Can’t see that sticking. Dublin Spire or Spike is probably how it will remain, whatever official tag gets put on it.
The Spire is what does it for me. Especially seen as the construction itself was such a major piece of discussion and public spectacle and it went under The Spire moniker during that time.
It somehow cheapens the whole construction process and the energy and passion that was evident in this thread for them now to be bandying around names by committee. I imagine Ritchie feels the same.
Originally posted by Graham Hickey
Interesting that as a result of the removal (blowing up?) of Victoria in College Green, Dublin is the only European city without an equestrian statue.Still, we’re also the only city with 396 foot Spire!
Touche.
Just for you a chara….
C.
God I can’t belive my ignorance, thats what it was, the Michael Collins film statue on Dame St! I knew there was one of her somewhere, sometime in the city,! I remember hearing about it now
I know this is the Spire thread, but just to say there’s a very fine and virtually unknown statue of Albert (Victoria’s other half) to the rear of Leinster House, excecuted by John Henry Foley, maker of O’ Connell Monument, and is in a similar style but smaller. Nice it didn’t suffer Victoria’s fate round the front.
Originally posted by Graham Hickey
I know this is the Spire thread, but just to say there’s a very fine and virtually unknown statue of Albert (Victoria’s other half) to the rear of Leinster House, excecuted by John Henry Foley, maker of O’ Connell Monument, and is in a similar style but smaller. Nice it didn’t suffer Victoria’s fate round the front.The bronze statue of Prince Albert in Leinster Lawn was erected in 1872 and there WAS an (unsuccessful) attempt to blow it up in the same year.
not sure many know or care of its existence now, but quite a great example of foley’s work.
I think the ‘Spire of Dublin’ sounds awfully Church of Irelandy and twee. Its a hunking great 100 and something metres of stainless steel with a perforated light emmiting tip, so lets just leave it ‘the spike’ please.
When I hear spire it paints a picture of steeplejacks and broomsticks and Mary Poppins films by a warm hearth.
But ‘the Spike’ is more abstract and brutal with more allusions to art & sculpture than built form.
Its also what everyone has felt compelled to call it all along, except some of the media who have tried to tame(refine) it by calling it Spire. I dont think it would fit the piece really and now it has been built we shouldnt have to be so coy anymore.Good point about “the Spire”. Richie’s original name was “The Monument of Light”, which think describes it more aptly.
Of course it will always be the Spike, but I can’t see anyone recognising this officially.
James
Spike is just fine, there is always an official level that cannot accept such casualness, which is fair enough, and we must also accept this. To be frank, we’d be more of a laughing stock, rather than thought of as being laid back, internationally if it were called the Spike on an official level.
Ciaran O, when a renouned architect criticised Liberty Hall, quoting: ‘the frippery on the roof being a slap in the face to the dome of the Custom House’, now I know what he ment!
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