Wellington Monument, Dublin

Last updated

Wellington Monument
Ireland - Dublin - Phoenix Park - Wellington Monument 2.jpg
Wellington Monument (Wellington Testimonial) in Dublin's Phoenix Park
Wellington Monument, Dublin
53°20′56″N6°18′11″W / 53.3490°N 6.3031°W / 53.3490; -6.3031
Location Phoenix Park, Dublin, Ireland
Designer Robert Smirke
Type Obelisk
MaterialGranite [1]
Height62 metres (203 ft) [1]
Beginning date1817
Opening date1861
Dedicated to Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

The Wellington Monument (Irish : Leacht Wellington), [2] or sometimes the Wellington Testimonial, [lower-alpha 1] is an obelisk located in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, Ireland.

Contents

The testimonial is situated at the southeast end of the Park, overlooking Kilmainham and the River Liffey. The structure is 62 metres (203 ft) tall, making it the largest obelisk in Europe. [3]

History

The Wellington Testimonial was built to commemorate the victories of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. Wellington, the British politician and general, also known as the 'Iron Duke', was born in Ireland. Originally planned to be located in Merrion Square, it was built in the Phoenix Park after opposition from the square's residents. [4]

The obelisk was designed by the architect Sir Robert Smirke and the foundation stone was laid in 1817. In 1820, the project ran out of construction funds and the structure remained unfinished until 18 June 1861 when it was opened to the public. There were also plans for a statue of Wellington on horseback, but a shortage of funds ruled that out. [5]

Features

There are four bronze plaques cast from cannons captured at Waterloo – three of which have pictorial representations of his career while the fourth has an inscription. [1] The plaques depict 'Civil and Religious Liberty' by John Hogan, 'Waterloo' by Thomas Farrell and the 'Indian Wars' by Joseph Robinson Kirk. The inscription reads:

Asia and Europe, saved by thee, proclaim
Invincible in war thy deathless name,
Now round thy brow the civic oak we twine
That every earthly glory may be thine.

Cultural references

The monument is referenced throughout James Joyce's Finnegans Wake . The first page of the novel alludes to a giant whose head is at "Howth Castle and Environs" and whose toes are at "a knock out in the park (p. 3)"; John Bishop extends the analogy, interpreting this centrally located obelisk as the prone giant's male member. [6] A few pages later, the monument is the site of the fictional "Willingdone Museyroom" (p. 8). [7]

Footnotes

  1. A testimonial is erected to a living person, as Wellington was when construction started [1]

Related Research Articles

<i>Finnegans Wake</i> 1939 novel by James Joyce

Finnegans Wake is a novel by Irish writer James Joyce. It is well known for its experimental style and its reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the Western canon. Written over a period of seventeen years and published in 1939, the novel was Joyce's final work. It is written in a largely idiosyncratic language which blends standard English with neologisms, portmanteau words, Irish mannerisms and puns in multiple languages to create a refracted effect. It has been categorized as "a work of fiction which combines a body of fables [...] with the work of analysis and deconstruction"; many critics believe the technique was Joyce's attempt to recreate the experience of dreams and hypnagogia, reproducing the way in which concepts, memories, people and places become amalgamated in dreaming. It has also been regarded as an attempt by Joyce to combine many of his prior aesthetic ideas, with references to other works and outside ideas woven into the text; Joyce declared that "every syllable can be justified". Due to its linguistic experiments, stream of consciousness writing style, literary allusions, free dream associations, and abandonment of narrative conventions, Finnegans Wake has been agreed to be a work largely unread by the general public.

An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by Ancient Egyptians and called tekhenu, the Greeks used the Greek term obeliskos to describe them, and this word passed into Latin and ultimately English. Though William Thomas used the term correctly in his Historie of Italie of 1549, by the late sixteenth century, Shakespeare failed to distinguish between pyramids and obelisks in his plays and sonnets. Ancient obelisks are monolithic; they consist of a single stone. Most modern obelisks are made of several stones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phoenix Park</span> Park in Dublin, Ireland

The Phoenix Park is a large urban park in Dublin, Ireland, lying 2–4 kilometres (1.2–2.5 mi) west of the city centre, north of the River Liffey. Its 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) perimeter wall encloses 707 hectares of recreational space. It includes large areas of grassland and tree-lined avenues, and since the 17th century has been home to a herd of wild fallow deer. The Irish Government is lobbying UNESCO to have the park designated as a world heritage site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Merrion Square</span> Garden park in Dublin

Merrion Square is a Georgian garden square on the southside of Dublin city centre.

<i>Anna Livia</i> (monument) Bronze monument in Dublin, Ireland

Anna Livia is a bronze monument located in Croppies' Acre Memorial Park in Dublin, Ireland. It was formerly located on O'Connell Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wellington's Column</span> Monument to the Duke of Wellington in Liverpool

Wellington's Column, or the Waterloo Memorial, is a monument to the Duke of Wellington standing on the corner of William Brown Street and Lime Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Livia Bridge</span> Bridge over the River Liffey in Ireland

The Anna Livia Bridge, formerly Chapelizod Bridge, is a road bridge spanning the River Liffey in Chapelizod, Dublin, Ireland which joins the Lucan Road to Chapelizod Road.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wellington Monument, Somerset</span> Triangular obelisk on a point of the Blackdown Hills

The Wellington Monument is a 175-foot-high (53 m) triangular obelisk located on a point of the Blackdown Hills, 3 km south of Wellington in the English county of Somerset. It is a grade II* listed building and is the tallest three-sided obelisk in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Hibernian Military School</span>

The Royal Hibernian Military School was founded in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, Ireland in 1769, to educate orphaned children of members of the British armed forces in Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knockagh Monument</span>

The Knockagh Monument is a war memorial in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is located on top of Knockagh Hill, above the village of Greenisland with a panoramic view of the city of Belfast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tibradden Mountain</span>

Tibradden Mountain is a mountain in County Dublin in Ireland. Other former names for the mountain include "Garrycastle" and "Kilmainham Begg". It is 467 metres high and is the 561st highest mountain in Ireland. It forms part of the group of hills in the Dublin Mountains which comprises Two Rock, Three Rock, Kilmashogue and Tibradden Mountains. The views from the summit encompass Dublin to the north, Two Rock to the east and the Wicklow Mountains to the south and west. The geological composition is mainly granite and the southern slopes are strewn with granite boulders. The summit area is a habitat for heather, furze, gorse and bilberry as well as Sika deer, foxes and badgers. The forestry plantation on the slopes – known as the Pine Forest – contains Scots pine, Japanese larch, European larch, Sitka spruce, oak and beech. The mountain is also a site of archaeological interest with a prehistoric burial site close to the summit.

The Ballad of Persse O'Reilly is a song in book one of James Joyce's novel Finnegans Wake, where the protagonist H.C.E. has been brought low by a rumour which begins to spread across Dublin, apparently concerning a sexual trespass involving two girls in Phoenix Park; however details of HCE's transgression change with each retelling of events. Most of chapters 1.2 through 1.4 follow the progress of this rumour, starting with HCE's encounter with "a cad with a pipe." The cad asks the time, but HCE misunderstands it as either an accusation or a proposition, and incriminates himself by denying rumours the cad has not yet heard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nelson's Pillar</span> Former column and statue in Dublin, Ireland

Nelson's Pillar was a large granite column capped by a statue of Horatio Nelson, built in the centre of what was then Sackville Street in Dublin, Ireland. Completed in 1809 when Ireland was part of the United Kingdom, it survived until March 1966, when it was severely damaged by explosives planted by Irish republicans. Its remnants were later destroyed by the Irish Army.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jervis Street Hospital</span> Hospital in Dublin, Ireland

Jervis Street Hospital was a hospital in Jervis Street in Dublin, Ireland. The site of the hospital became the Jervis Shopping Centre.

John Bowden was an Irish architect and member of the Board of First Fruits of the Church of Ireland from 1813 to 1821. He was born in Dublin and died in 1822.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Borneo War Monument</span>

The North Borneo War Monument is a monument that was erected on 8 May 1923 by the North Borneo Chartered Company in Bond Street, Jesselton, British North Borneo. Originally, it was a memorial for the fallen British soldiers during the World War I but later extended to include the Australian soldiers in World War II. The monument stands today in the city park of Kota Kinabalu, the capital of the Malaysian state of Sabah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blessington Street Basin</span> Former reservoir, now part of a park, central Dublin, Ireland

Blessington Street Basin is a former drinking water reservoir in northern central Dublin which operated from 1810 until the 1970s, serving the north city. It became the central feature of a public park in 1891, and this park was renewed and reopened in 1994.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Wellington Monument, Phoenix Park, Dublin, Dublin City". buildingsofireland.ie. National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  2. "Leacht Wellington / Wellington Monument". Irish Placenames Commission. Retrieved 1 July 2015.
  3. "1856 – Design for Wellington Testimonial, Phoenix Park, Dublin". Archiseek (Architecture site). 4 January 2012. Retrieved 1 July 2015.
  4. Garnett, P. F. (June–August 1952). "The Wellington Testimonial". Dublin Historical Record. 13 (2): 48–61. JSTOR   30105448.
  5. "1861 – Wellington Monument, Phoenix Park, Dublin". Archiseek (Architecture site). 5 February 2010. Retrieved 1 July 2015.
  6. Bishop, John (1986), Joyce's Book of the Dark: Finnegans Wake, University of Wisconsin Press, pp. 34–35, ISBN   9780299108205
  7. Tindall, William York (1996). A Reader's Guide to Finnegans Wake. Syracuse University Press. ISBN   9780815603856.