Monument of Light, Dublin Ireland
Nelson Pillar was the previous occupant of the site of the Spire until it was destroyed by a bomb in 1966. The monument itself was commissioned as part of a redesigned street layout in 1999. O'Connell Street (formerly Sackville Street) was perceived to have gone into decline from the 1970s. Some people blamed the appearance of fast food restaurants and the opening of bargain basement shops, all using cheap plastic, visually unattractive and obtrusive shop fronts, the existence of a number of derelict sites, and the decision in 1966 by former members of the IRA to blow up the Nelson Pillar, as reasons for the decline in a once famous and attractive street. In the 1990s, plans were launched to improve the streetscape. The excessive number of trees in the central reservation, which had overgrown and obscured the street's views and monuments, was reduced dramatically. Statues were cleaned and in some cases relocated. Shop-owners were required to replace plastic signage and frontage with more visually attractive designs. Private car traffic was re- directed where possible away from the street, with its number of traffic lanes reduced, to allow more 'public ownership' of the street for pedestrians. The centrepiece of this regeneration was to be a replacement monument for Nelson Pillar, the Spire of Dublin, chosen by a committee under the then chairmanship of the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Alderman Joe Doyle from a large number of submissions. The choice of the monument proved controversial. Its cost at €4,000,000 (or well over IR£3,000,000 in contemporary currency before the appearance of the euro), was criticized, as was its design. Various nicknames were attached to it even prior to its erection (most famously, the "Stiletto in the Ghetto," "the Rod to God", the "Erection at the Intersection," and the "Stiffy by the Liffey").
Size: 5130px × 3420px
Photo credit: © MOB IMAGES / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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