Nelson’s Pillar – Dublin, Ireland

 

Reinterpretation/Recontextualization, Repurposing, Destruction Frameworks. Explore definitions here. 

Introduction

This case study analyzes how individuals, political organizations, academic institutions, municipal groups, and museums interpret and influence interpretations of controversial monuments in Ireland. It narrows its focus specifically to Nelson’s Pillar, one of the more  famous monuments in Irish history to be toppled. It also examines Irish sentiments toward monuments in general and Ireland’s history of defacing controversial monuments.  

One of the objectives of this case study is to provide a view of controversial monuments beyond the United States, underscoring the importance of culture in dialogues around monuments. Secondly, this case study expands conversations around the work museums do in interpreting fragments of controversial monuments that have been removed from their original locations. Since fragments of Nelson’s Pillar survive in several public spaces from Dublin to Belfast, their displays offer comparisons of different curatorial techniques.  

Section 1: Site Selection 

Dublin’s monuments to the British monarchy and the British military establishment functioned as signifiers of British imperialism over Ireland. Once those monuments were placed in public spaces, they fell into the public domain where they had the potential to be subverted. Monuments ultimately came to represent the cultural warfare between Irish nationalists and loyalists. Nelson’s Pillar is among the most famous contested monuments to have stood in Dublin. Its bombing in 1966 was a political statement that left a lasting mark in Ireland’s historical consciousness. 

This case study analyzes the changing reactions to Nelson’s Pillar, from its unveiling in the 19th century, to its bombing and toppling in 1966, and the display of fragments in museum spaces today. Ireland’s unique political history and its reflection in the varied perceptions of Nelson’s Pillar provide an international perspective for the Monuments Toolkit Project based in the United States. With increasing calls for contested monuments to be moved into museum spaces, a study of how museums have gone about showing fragments of Nelson’s Pillar in their collections is particularly relevant to monument studies today.

Section 2: Ireland’s Monumental Landscape 

2.1. Irish Monument Making 

From the High Crosses of the medieval period to the Spire of Dublin, free-standing monuments have long held a place in the history of Irish sculpture. However, until monuments of illustrious individuals came into fashion in the 18th century, much of Irish sculpture consisted of tomb monuments, stucco work, and other forms of home décor (Crookshank, 1984). It was not until John Van Nost the Younger came to Ireland around 1749 that free-standing monuments of individuals became prevalent in Dublin (ibid.).  

In 1717, the Dublin Corporation commissioned Van Nost’s father to create an equestrian statue of George I for Essex Bridge. Van Nost the Younger later sculpted statues of George II and George III. His statues of Justice and Mars still stand on Dublin Castle’s gates in Upper Castle Yard (ibid.). However, all of his other public statues have been destroyed or removed. 

The 19th century saw a proliferation of memorial sculpture in Ireland. As Paula Murphy notes in her monograph on Irish Victorian sculpture, Ireland’s political and religious strife “played out in the public monuments” (Murphy, 2010). It was during this point in Irish history that many of the most noted controversial statues were erected and became symbols of Britain’s continued imperial grip over Ireland. With their imposing scale, they seemed to leer incongruously over Dublin’s impoverished streets.  

Why were so many of the British Empire’s leading figures commemorated in Ireland, and why was Horatio Nelson selected for the center of one of Dublin’s foremost streets?  Murphy (2010) writes, “…Dublin was the second largest city in what had become the United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland in 1801…It must have seemed perfectly logical to many, therefore, that the second city of the empire would commemorate the man who defeated Napoleon.” However, many Irish people did not agree with this logic. 

2.1. A Short History of Re[Moving] Monuments in Ireland 

Irish nationalists have long subverted monuments dedicated to the British monarchy and military establishment erected in Dublin. Most prominent are those dedicated to William  III, George I, George II, Horatio Nelson, and the Duke of Wellington (Whelan, 2002). Following its unveiling in 1701, the monument to William III on College Green became the focal point of both loyalist celebrations and demonstrations of resistance to British imperialism. In the early 18th century, Sir John Thomas Gilbert reported that the monument “…was frequently found in the morning decorated with green boughs, bedaubed with filth, or dressed up with hay; it was also a common practice to set a straw figure astride behind that of the King” (Gilbert, 1903). 

During the 20th century, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) or its affiliates bombed several monuments around Dublin, including monuments to George II, Archibald Montgomerie, William III, and Hugh Gough. Other monuments to the monarchy were simply removed and redisplayed in Australia, England, and elsewhere. 

Irish loyalists also participated in such vandalism. Loyalists pulled down the 1798 column at Bandon, Co. Cork, erected in 1901 (Murphy, 2010). In 1921, British troops broke the statue of the Maid of Erin in two. Loyalists also bombed monuments such as the Wolfe Tone statue in St. Stephen’s Green and the monument to Daniel O’Connell on O’Connell Street (ibid.).  

In Ireland, vandalism of political monuments continues today. In 2016, the Pease statue near Aghalane Bridge on the border between the North and South of Ireland was stolen. Later recovered, the sculpture commemorates the peace following the Good Friday agreement.  

While monument vandalism continues in Ireland and Northern Ireland, monuments are also being reclaimed and displayed in new ways. Following its bombing in 1957, the remaining fragments of the Gough Memorial were used to erect a re-imagined version of the work on the grounds of Castle Chillingham in 1990 (Dublin City Council, retrieved 2023).  

Section 3: O’Connell Street as Ireland’s Avenue of Monuments  

An avenue of monuments running through the center of Ireland’s capital, O’Connell Street honors those figures whom Dubliners, and the Irish more generally, perceive as representatives of Irish culture. The individuals depicted on O’Connell Street have cultural weight, especially in light of the role monuments played in political conflicts throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Today, twelve monuments line O’Connell Street, adorn buildings located on the street, or sit adjacent to the street.  

 3.1. Daniel O’Connell 

The most famous of the monuments represents the street’s namesake, Daniel O’Connell. O’Connell was the political leader of Ireland’s Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. Although he failed in his goal to restore the Irish Parliament, which was disbanded by the 1800 Act of Union, he succeeded in Catholic emancipation. On August 8, 1864, Lord Mayor Peter Paul McSwiney laid the Dalkey granite foundation stone, declaring, “The people of Ireland meet today to honour the man whose matchless genius won Emancipation, and whose fearless hand struck off the fetters whereby six million of his country men were held in bondage in their own land” (The Illustrated London News, August 20, 1864, p. 202). The mayor of Dublin unveiled the completed monument on August 15, 1882 (Dublin City Council History of Monuments, 2003). 

3.2. William Smith O’Brien  

The William Smith O’Brien monument was the first monument erected in the capital to commemorate an individual who took up arms against British rule. William Smith O’Brien was a member of the Protestant nobility who led the failed rebellion of 1848, for which he was sentenced to death. A committee was formed in 1868 to gather subscriptions, and the monument was unveiled on December 26, 1870. In 1929, due to traffic congestion, the monument was moved from its original location at the junction of Sackville Street and D’Olier Street to just twenty feet south of the junction of O’Connell Street and Lower Abbey Street (Dublin City Council History of Monuments, 2003). 

3.3. Sir John Gray 

A nationalist MP, Sir John Gray was chairman of the Dublin Corporation waterworks committee from 1863 until his death in 1875 and played a central role in improving Dublin’s water supply. He was also owner of The Freeman’s Journal. The monument was unveiled on June 24, 1879, just outside the Journal’s office (ibid.). 

 3.4. James Larkin 

James Larkin was a trade union leader and Irish republican. He was one of the founding members of the Irish Labour Party, Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union, Workers’ Union of Ireland, and Irish Worker League. He also founded the Irish Citizen Army, a paramilitary organization integral to the Easter Rising of 1916 (ibid.). 

3.5. Spire of Dublin 

The Spire of Dublin was erected on the former location of Nelson’s Pillar in 2003 to celebrate economic prosperity during a period when Ireland was dubbed the Celtic Tiger. Ian Ritchie Architects designed the spire as part of a competition to replace Nelson’s Pillar for the new millennium (ibid.). 

3.6. Cú Chulainn 

Sculpted by Oliver Sheppard, the Cú Chulainn statue is located in the window of the General Post Office. It represents the death of Cú Chulainn, a warrior from Celtic mythology. Unveiled in 1935, it is the official memorial to the Easter Rising of 1916. The statue inspired W.B. Yeats’s poem “The Statues” (Goalwin, 2019). 

3.7. Father Theobald Mathew 

Father Mathew was a Capuchin friar known for his nationwide campaign for temperance. The monument was sculpted by Mary Redmond and unveiled in 1893 (Dublin City Council History of Monuments, 2003). 

3.8. Charles Stewart Parnell 

The Charles Stewart Parnell monument was one of the last erected in Dublin before Irish  independence. It was funded by a volunteer committee spearheaded by John Redmond and chaired by Lord Mayor Daniel Tallon.

3.9. James Joyce 

The Dublin City Centre Business Association commissioned the James Joyce statue as part of its larger program to pedestrianize Dublin’s central retail streets in the 1980s and 1990s. The Joyce sculpture marked the completion of North Earl Street’s pedestrianization (ibid.).  

3.10. Patrick Sheahan 

Erected in 1906, the Patrick Sheahan monument is the only non-figurative monument in the area dedicated to an individual. It combines Gothic Revival and Celtic motifs, drawing on the Gaelic revival movement. The monument marks the location where constable Sheahan lost his life attempting to save a workman from toxic fumes in the sewer work site (ibid.).  

Section 4: Horatio Nelson and Nelson’s Pillar 

4.1. Before Nelson’s Pillar 

In the 1740s, Luke Gardiner, a banker, acquired Drogheda Street and began developing it into a premier residential area with imposing townhouses, a 150-foot-wide street, and a tree-lined mall. By the end of the 18th century, Carlisle Bridge, now replaced by O’Connell  Bridge, was erected to link the northside boulevard to the southside of the Liffey (Morash,  2023). 

The first statue to stand in the place Nelson’s Pillar once occupied on present-day O’Connell Street was that of William Blakeney. Sculpted by John Van Nost the Younger and unveiled on Saint Patrick’s Day 1759, it was the first statue to represent an Irishman in Dublin. Blakeney was born in Limerick and went on to have a lengthy military career defending the British Empire in the Seven Years’ War (Fallon, 2014).  

The Blakeney monument was the victim of frequent vandalism. In 1763, it was thrown off its pedestal and severely damaged (Fallon, 2014). However, exactly when the monument was permanently removed from its place on Sackville Street remains unclear.  

4.2. Horatio Nelson and his Irish Connections 

The year 1798 saw both a failed Irish Rebellion and Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson’s victory at the Battle of the Nile. Dublin’s residents celebrated Nelson’s triumph by lighting candles in windows and singing tunes such as “God Save the King” and “Rule Britannia.” Britain’s triumph at the Battle of the Nile was also a triumph for Irish loyalists (Pakenham, 1992).  

Nelson himself was never directly entangled in Irish politics. He had not fought against the Irish republicans in the 1798 rebellion. He also had no part in the passing of the Acts of Union in 1800, which merged the Parliament of Ireland into the Parliament of the United Kingdom, effectively stripping Dublin of its political significance. 

Nelson’s only connection to the United Irish revolutionaries was through Edward Marcus  Despard, an Irish colonel. Despard had served as superintendent of Honduras but had later turned to political radicalism and joined the United Britons, a movement tied to the United Irish. In 1802, Despard was arrested for conspiring to assassinate King George III (Pakenham, 1992). In the ensuing trial, Nelson acted as a character witness for Despard—support that did not spare the accused from public execution. 

Nelson’s defense of Despard did not imply Nelson’s own support of the Irish republican cause. Even though a quarter to a third of the sailors manning Nelson’s fleet were Irish, he had little sympathy for Irish nationalism (Kennedy, 2013). 

Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar in 1805 inspired similar celebrations in Dublin to those held  following the Battle of the Nile in 1798. The Freeman’s Journal (1805) declared that “to the  people of Ireland it should particularly be a matter of great exultation.” In the hour of his greatest military triumph, Nelson was killed by French musket fire. The Irish press at the time largely treated his legacy with great admiration. Following Nelson’s death, the  question of how to commemorate him arose.  

Section 5: Nelson’s Pillar Over the Years 

5.1. Erecting Nelson’s Pillar 

The Napoleonic Wars dominated British politics in the early 19th century and inspired  monuments to British victories. Nelson’s Pillar and other military monuments, together with public monuments to the British monarchy, served as propaganda for an Anglo-Irish  political hegemony (Whelan, 2019).  

Plans for a monument to Horatio Nelson in Dublin and a public subscription were launched shortly after his death at Trafalgar. The Corporation of the City of Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, the Earl of Hardwicke, the Duke of Bedford, and the Archbishop of Dublin were among the largest donors (Nelson’s Pillar: A Description, 1811).  

A Committee was then appointed, consisting of both Catholic and Protestant citizens of  Dublin. After raising more than £6,408, the Committee commissioned a design by William Wilkins which was then modified by Francis Johnston, designer of the General Post Office (GPO). Thomas Kirk, an Irish sculptor, created the statue of Nelson to stand at the top of the Doric pillar. The foundation stone of Nelson’s Pillar was laid on February 15, 1808 (ibid.). 

A brass plaque was placed on the foundation stone, inscribed in part:  

By the Blessing of Almighty GOD, To commemorate the Transcendent Heroic  Achievements of the Right Honourable HORATIO LORD VISCOUNT NELSON,  Duke of Bronti, in Sicily, Vice-Admiral of the White Squadron of His Majesty’s  Fleet, Who fell Gloriously in the Battle off CAPE TRAFALGAR, on the 21st day of  October, 1805 This first STONE of a Triumphal PILLAR was laid on the 15th Day  of February, in the year of our Lord, 1808, and in the 48th Year of the Reign of  our most GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN, GEORGE THE THIRD…. (Fallon, 2014). 

The monument of Wicklow granite and black limestone was finally completed in 1852 at a  height of 134 feet, the four sides of the pedestal engraved with the names of the battles  where Nelson had achieved his most noted victories (The Picture of Dublin for 1811, 1811). A  168-step spiral staircase in the pillar’s hollow interior led to a platform that provided a  panoramic view of Dublin (ibid.). The tourist destination opened to visitors on October  21,1809 (Henchy, 1948). The pillar became a centerpiece for loyalist celebrations and royal  visits. 

5.2. The Reception of Nelson’s Pillar in the 19th and Early 20th Century 

Nelson’s Pillar elicited mixed reactions throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.  Publications attacked it for a multitude of reasons. In 1844, one writer for the Mirror of  Literature, Amusement, and Instruction penned the verse:  

 That frightful mass of cord, I feels,  

  Such lubber foolery to check,  

 Should be removed from Nelson’s heels 

  And put about his Sculptor’s neck (Backstay, 1844). 

Others complained that it impeded traffic, stating that it “spoils and blocks up our finest street, and literally darkens the two other streets opposite it” (Henchy, 1948). In 1876, the Dublin Corporation considered moving the pillar to one of the city’s squares, but the corporation did not have the authority to remove it (Whelan, 2019).  

Critiques of the pillar’s appearance and placement soon gave way to political critiques.  The nationalistic Irish Monthly Magazine published a piece by Watty Cox, stating, “The statue of Nelson records the glory of a Mistress and the transformation of our senate into a discount office” (Henchy, 1948). 

In 1891, the House of Commons debated moving Nelson’s Pillar. Although the bill to remove it passed, the trustees of the pillar once again refused to let the monument be disturbed (Whelan, 2019).  

As Home Rule and Irish self-determination moved to the center of Ireland’s political discourse, Nelson’s Pillar became a point of political contention. By 1905, the Dublin Corporation, its membership now 80 percent nationalist, was slowly distancing itself from the monument it had once lobbied to erect (Fallon, 2014). The tides of Irish politics were swiftly turning. 

5.3. Nelson’s Pillar and the Aftermath of the Easter Rising of 1916 

On April 24, 1916, the Irish Citizen Army and Irish Volunteers, among other groups, took up  arms in hope of establishing an Irish Republic. O’Connell Street became the center of the Easter Rising. Although around 1,200 armed nationalists occupied various parts of Dublin, The General Post Office on O’Connell Street (then called Sackville Street) was the command center (Morash, 2023). Posters of the “Proclamation of an Irish Republic” were pasted up across the city,  including on Nelson’s Pillar (Fallon, 2014). Bullet holes from the guns fired during the Easter Rising still dot the monuments on O’Connell Street. Nelson’s Pillar, which stood across from the GPO, saw its share of bullets.  

While the GPO became a symbol of Irish nationalism following the Easter Rising, Nelson’s  Pillar became its antithesis. The Death of Cú Chulainn, a bronze statue of a mythological Irish warrior by Oliver Sheppard, now became the sculptural emblem of Irish nationalism, while Nelson’s Pillar became an even more poignant symbol of Britain’s long-held  imperial grip over Ireland.  

5.4. Nelson’s Pillar in an Independent Ireland 

The formation of the Irish Free State in 1922 changed the political landscape of Ireland. Many revolutionaries became politicians. In February 1922, a month after Ireland gained  its independence, James Joyce published Ulysses with the iconic line referring to Nelson’s statue as “the one-handed adulterer.” During that tumultuous year, Nelson’s Pillar once again saw action as the Battle of Dublin raged around it.  

In 1925, the topic of removing Nelson’s Pillar emerged once more. The Irish Times (1925)  reported “one enterprising Liverpool firm …has made an offer to the Commissioners to take down the Pillar at a cost of £1,000.” The trustees of the pillar were willing to consider removal as long as the pillar was re-erected elsewhere. However, nothing came of this  proposal. Again, in 1931, the Dublin Corporation demanded the city manager approach the national government and convince it to pass an Act of the Oireachtas that would  sanction the monument’s removal (Fallon, 2014).  

The Blueshirts, a paramilitary organization founded to protect Irish Free State politicians from the IRA, gave an opinion on the pillar in 1935 in its newspaper, The Blueshirt (1935): “O’Connell and all the rest are dominated by a monument to an English sailor who never earned, morally or in any other way, the slightest claim to Irish respect or gratitude…The conqueror is gone, but the scars which he left still remain and the victim will not even try to remove them.” Throughout the 1930s, the ideological debate over Dublin’s imperial  monuments persisted, and many fell as a result either by removal or iconoclasm.  

5.5. The Bombing of Nelson’s Pillar 

On March 8, 1966, a small faction associated with the IRA named the Christle Group bombed Nelson’s Pillar around 1:30 a.m. No one was injured in the blast, and it succeeded in bringing down the top half of the pillar. Immediately following the explosion, the Garda placed armed officers at other controversial monuments.  

There were mixed reactions to the bombing. Senator Owen Dudley Edwards gave a statement, saying, “I, as a Dubliner, felt a sense of loss, not because of Nelson,  but…because this pillar symbolised for many Dubliners the centre of the city” (Whelan,  2001). Days later, authorities demolished the remainder of the pillar.  

In the days following the bombing, the site became a sightseeing attraction where people would acquire fragments of the pillar for their own collections. 

The most famous souvenir from the blast site is Nelson’s head. Following the explosion, the head was taken to the Dublin Corporation yard on Ardee Street. There, it was stolen by National College of Art and Design students, who rented it out to fund the Student Union.  The head was ultimately returned to the Dublin Corporation and is now on display in the  Dublin City Library and Archive.  

5.6. Replacing Nelson’s Pillar 

The Nelson Pillar Act of 1969 transferred the site’s control over to the Dublin Corporation  with significant compensation to the pillar’s former trustees (Electronic Irish Statute  Book, retrieved 2023). In 1998, the city held a competition to fill the space. London  architect Ian Ritchie won with his design for the Spire of Dublin, an apolitical monument  celebrating Ireland’s stunning economic success. Not all Dubliners were pleased with the  Spire, with some calling it “the stiletto in the ghetto” and one Dubliner saying, “We didn’t  like the old one [Nelson’s Pillar], and we don’t like the new one [the Spire of Dublin]” (Interview with Kimberly Lifton, 2023). 

5.7. Nelson Now 

Although Nelson’s Pillar has been replaced with the Spire of Dublin, memories of the monument and its fall have not entirely faded. Inside The Temple Bar, one of the most famous pubs in Dublin, a framed newspaper with the article “Blast Wrecks Nelson Pillar” splashed across the front page still hangs beside other Dublin memorabilia. 

More organized efforts have also been made to preserve the memory of Nelson’s Pillar. In  2011 or 2012, the Dublin City Library and Archive began an oral history project titled  “Memories of ‘The Pillar’” to gather “personal views of past events from an everyday  perspective….” (Dublin City Library and Archive, 2011-12). The results of the project have not  survived if, in fact, the project was ever carried out. However, the fact that the initiative  was undertaken demonstrates that Dublin’s public institutions perceive that they have a  role in preserving histories of contested monuments.  

Some Dubliners still feel nostalgia for Nelson’s Pillar. A group of residents petitioned for the gates that once surrounded Nelson’s Pillar to be placed again in public view. In 2016, a Labour Party member called for the gates to be relocated to O’Connell Street, stating, “I realise there are mixed feelings towards the pillar, but it was part of the history of the city and the gates are one of the last remaining pieces we have” (Kelly, 2016).  

Section 6: Telling the Story of Nelson’s Pillar in Fragments 

Increasingly, newspaper headlines, local politicians, and activists have been calling for controversial monuments to be removed and safe-housed in museums. One Los Angeles Times headline reads “What to do with Confederate monuments? Put them in museums as examples of ugly history, not civic pride” (Knight, 2017). Some Confederate monuments across the United States have already been removed and placed in museum storage facilities. 

The “retain and explain” approach that Oliver Dowden, UK cultural secretary, and other

governments have taken is not as simple as politicians claim (Harris, 2021; Young, 2021). Many museums do not have the space to collect such large objects, and museum workers  may not have the bandwidth to contextualize them. The Smithsonian article “Are Museums the Right Home for Confederate Monuments?” examines the role of museums in preserving contentious monuments from the perspective of museum workers: 

Putting monuments in context is anything but a simple, declarative act: power  dynamics come into play…. A simple label is not enough. In displaying statues,  museums will need to be prepared to contextualize them visually and  dramatically, to represent the layers of their history—from the story of their  creation to the story of them being taken down and collected (Bryant et al.,  2018).

Exhibitions like From Commemoration to Education: Pompeo Coppini’s Statue of Jefferson Davis at the Briscoe Center of American History, Austin, Texas, and Unveiled. Berlin and its Monuments in the Citadel Museum, Spandau, have sought to do such work (Wright, 2018). However, even with museum contextualization, a monument may still intimidate.  

In her monograph Iconoclasm and the Museum, Stacy Boldrick, an associate professor at the University of Leicester, considers how museums’ attitudes have changed when it comes to displaying works that have undergone iconoclasm (Boldrick, 2020). Museums have long tended to be silent about the destruction of objects. The stories behind objects of iconoclasm are particularly difficult to tell because oppositional groups produce conflicting narratives about them. However, in more recent years, issues of iconoclasm have come to the fore, and museums must grapple with iconoclasm in order to remain  relevant. Boldrick’s monograph examines a number of temporary exhibitions to capture the range of approaches museums have taken to curating objects of iconoclasm.  

Unlike museums in the United States, museums in Ireland do not have a substantial donor base. And unlike state-funded museums in Britain, they do not have a substantial looted collection acquired through empire-building. The Tate Britain is, therefore, a drastically different type of museum space than the Little Museum of Dublin or the exhibition space in the Dublin City Library and Archives.  

The types of voices that have the power to tell stories in museum spaces also differ from  museum to museum. What were once marginalized voices during Britain’s occupation of Ireland are now more dominant in Irish museums like the Little Museum of Dublin. However, in Northern Ireland, the voices expressed in the volunteer-run Eileen Hickey Irish Republican History Museum still find themselves marginalized in the country’s broader politics. This, along with varied approaches to museum funding, fundamentally influences how museums display fragments of Nelson’s Pillar and the types of narratives they tell.  

6.1. Dublin City Library and Archive 

The Dublin City Library and Archive on Pearse Street acquired the head of the Nelson statue from Nelson’s Pillar when the Dublin Civic Museum closed for refurbishment in 2003. The installation of the head at the Dublin City Library and Archive was intended to be temporary, but the Dublin Civic Museum never reopened.  

Nelson’s head now sits, as it has since the day it entered the second-floor reading room of the Dublin City Library and Archive, on a rectangular pillar tucked in the corner behind long tables. The only label is one that reads “NELSON” just below the head. The Dublin City Library and Archive puts no narrative forward, nor does it offer a permanent exhibition space.  

On the level below the reading room is a cleverly designed sitting room just outside the  conference area. The wall farthest from the entrance is decorated with an image of what is now O’Connell Street from around 1900. The image is made almost three dimensional by the column in the middle of the room, which is cleverly wrapped in wallpaper to make it appear like Nelson’s Pillar. However, there is no discussion of the controversy regarding the monument.  

The Dublin City libraries come under the purview of the Dublin City Council, whose  mission is to “provide quality services for its citizens and visitors and act to protect and promote Dublin’s distinct identity in a way that acknowledges our past and secures our  future” (Dublin City Council, n.d.). Ultimately, the primary purpose of the Dublin City Library and Archive is not to curate its collection as an exhibition. Its association with the municipal government may complicate its ability to engage in narratives around controversy.  

 6.2. The Little Museum of Dublin 

The Little Museum of Dublin, located in a Georgian townhouse on the edge of St.  Stephen’s Green, claims to tell “the remarkable story of the Irish capital” (The Little  Museum of Dublin website, n.d.). Launched in 2011, it acquired its more than 5,000  artifacts through donation. The goal of the museum, according to its website, is “not to  sell an ideology but simply to remember the past,” which has influenced how it displays  Nelson’s Pillar (ibid.). A commercial enterprise, the museum is the only institution  considered in this case study that charges an admission fee. 

The permanent exhibition displays two fragments of Nelson’s Pillar, one real and one fake,  beside a scaled-down replica of the pillar, and it surrounds the fragments with text to  contextualize them. This section of the exhibition is titled “Meet Me at the Pillar: A Short  History of Dublin’s Most Famous Statue.” It begins with an account of who Horatio Nelson  was and the pillar’s location as a tourist destination. The label then moves on to the 1916  Easter Rising and W.B. Yeats’s bi-partisan point of view: “It represents the feeling of  Protestant Ireland for a man who helped to break the power of Napoleon. The life and  work of the people who built it are part of our tradition. I think we should accept the  whole part of this nation and not pick and choose” (ibid.).  

Next is the section associated with the two fragments, including a label that reads in part:

Spot the genuine article. The 1966 explosion was followed by a scramble for  relics of the iconic monument…. Here you can see two blocks of granite. The  one on the left was donated to the museum by someone who claimed,  wrongly, that it was from the Pillar. The piece on the right was recently  exhibited in London’s Tate Gallery, on loan from this museum (The Little Museum of Dublin, n.d.). 

The exhibition does not delve any further into the impulses that led Dubliners to collect fragments of the pillar from the blast site. It simply moves on to the bombing of Nelson’s Pillar in a section titled “Down with Nelson!” The concluding paragraph of the “Down with Nelson!” section reflects Dubliners’ differing opinions on the monument: 

Reports of crowds cheering as the army carried out their controlled demolition  suggest a lighthearted attitude to Nelson’s demise. Yet for other Dubliners the  Pillar and Nelson were separate things. They cared little about navy battles in  the early nineteenth century. For them, the Pillar was a much-loved view of  their own ever-changing city. And now it is gone forever (ibid.). 

The Little Museum of Dublin’s display of the fragments in its collection is the most comprehensive display considered in this case study. Drawing on a number of quotes, it represents the multitude of interpretations that Nelson’s Pillar elicited. The exhibition provides a nuanced perspective on the controversy surrounding the pillar without taking an ideological stance. 

 6.3. The Tate Museum’s “Art under Attack: Histories of British Iconoclasm” 

When it was initially proposed by Tate Britain’s director in 2011, Art Under Attack was the  first major exhibition in the United Kingdom to focus on iconoclasm in Britain. As exhibition curator Stacy Boldrick words it, the exhibition sought to “portray iconoclasm’s inconsistencies and differences in specific historical contexts, and to examine the histories of iconoclastic policies and practices by considering the power, status and reception of particular images and art forms” (Boldrick, 2020). The organizing principle consisted of three thematic sections—“Religion,” “Politics,” and “Aesthetics”—with objects from each section in chronological order (Barber & Boldrick, 2013). 

Art Under Attack displayed two fragments of Nelson’s Pillar, one from the Little Museum of Dublin and the other from a private collection, in the section on “Politics.” The section was split into two parts, “Politics and Public Space” and a more focused “Suffragettes,” with the fragments sorted into the former. Along with a fragment from an equestrian statue of George III, the fragments tell a narrative of iconoclasm and British colonialism. 

In attempting to examine as many dimensions of iconoclasm in Britain as possible, the exhibition only touched upon the complicated controversies behind Nelson’s Pillar and the other imperial statues from Ireland it displayed. As co-curator, Boldrick pointed out to The Guardian, “every room is a subject in itself and could be its own exhibition” (Brown,  2013). Therefore, the exhibition lacks the comprehensive historical contextualization provided by the Little Museum of Dublin. The fragments become part of a larger narrative related to the resistance to British colonialism globally. As the Tate Britain is a state-funded museum dedicated to British art, the exhibition also marginalizes Irish republican voices by placing Irish republican iconoclasm in a distinctly British narrative. Consequently, Nelson’s Pillar becomes part of British history, a history in which Ireland is but a participant. Art Under Attack begs the question, is it effective to curate monuments of anti-colonial or post-colonial iconoclasm against the British in a space dominated by Britain, or does this curatorial endeavor belong elsewhere?  

6.4. Eileen Hickey Irish Republican History Museum 

The Eileen Hickey Irish Republican History Museum is located outside Belfast’s city center next to the Conway Mill Trust, which works for “economic, community, social and cultural redevelopment in Northern Ireland” (Conway Mill Trust website, n.d.). It fundraises in the United States to provide grants to eight community groups in Northern Ireland, including the Eileen Hickey Irish Republican History Museum. The museum houses artifacts, including many prison handcrafts, that represent the struggle for Irish freedom.  

The museum is an independent body that is entirely volunteer staffed and relies on public  donations. Admission is free. The museum’s mission statement makes evident its goals: 

• To preserve and promote, through art, crafts and artifacts the history of the  Republican Struggle for Irish Freedom  
• For Republican history to be told by Republicans 
• To educate, so that our youth may understand why Republicans fought,  died and spent many years in prison for their beliefs  

(Eileen Hickey Irish Republican History Museum, n.d.)

The second goal listed here is what sets the Eileen Hickey Irish Republican History Museum apart from other institutions explored in this case study. Representing marginalized voices in Northern Irish politics, the museum decenters dominant narratives and centers marginalized histories, taking an innovative approach to inclusion that redefines memorialization.  

The Eileen Hickey Irish Republican History Museum’s collection consists entirely of donations. The fragments of Nelson’s Pillar are housed in a glass display case surrounded by items including a penknife with an image of Nelson’s Pillar, a Christmas card made by a republican POW in Crumlin Road Prison (1959), and a booklet titled Prison Rules (Northern Ireland) 1954 (Amended). 

Above the objects sitting on the shelf is a label pasted to the back of the display case. It  reads in part: 

On the 8th March 1966 shortly after 1:30am a powerful explosion destroyed the  upper portion of the pillar & brought Nelson’s statue crashing to the ground  amid hundreds of tons of rubble. While the Free State Government  condemned the attack as an “outrage” the reaction of the public was light-hearted leading to many songs about the incident, including the popular  ‘Up Went Nelson’….While it was generally assumed that the monument was  destroyed by the IRA, an IRA spokesman denied this stating they have no  interest in demolishing mere symbols of foreign domination; “We are  interested in the destruction of the domination itself”. No further information  was forthcoming untill 2000, when during a radio interview a former IRA  Volunteer, Liam Sutcliffe, claimed he had placed the bomb which detonated in  the pillar.. (Spelling and punctuation are preserved). 

Unlike the label at the Little Museum of Dublin, this label does not reflect the multiple opinions Dubliners held regarding the bombing in 1966. The label also does not address why the monument was controversial in the first place. Strikingly, it is the only display that is centrally concerned with who bombed the pillar. The way in which the Eileen Hickey Irish Republican History Museum contextualizes its fragments is colored by its overarching ideological goal. The museum does not seek to tell an un-ideological narrative like the Little Museum of Dublin or the Ulster Museum’s The Troubles and Beyond permanent exhibit.  

The fragments of Nelson’s Pillar are not the only fragments housed in the museum’s collection. It also displays sections of walls from the notorious British prison Long Kesh. Unlike mainstream museums, the Eileen Hickey Irish Republican History Museum is not troubled by the anxiety of displaying fragments of iconoclasm because it seeks to tell a different type of story—one outside of the establishment.  

6.5. Fragments in a Semi-Public Non-Museum Space: The Butler House 

Possibly one of the oddest locations where fragments of Nelson’s Pillar can be found on display is in the semi-public gardens of the Butler House in Kilkenny, an 18th-century Georgian house that is now a hotel. Sixteen granite blocks from the plinth of Nelson’s Pillar encircle a fishpond and serve as sitting areas. While the gardens are largely accessible to the public, they are privately owned.  

How the blocks ended up in Kilkenny is still a mystery. The remains of the plinth after it was bombed in 1966 drew the attention of William Walsh, the general manager of the Irish Export Board. Intent on improving the standards of design in Irish industry, Walsh founded the Kilkenny Design Workshops, a government-funded center for research into design. He likely brought the fragments of the plinth from Dublin to the Kilkenny Design Workshop to exhibit them as examples of Irish craftsmanship.  

Today, only a small plaque stands beside the fragments to contextualize them. It ends with a paragraph addressing both the controversy surrounding the pillar and the fragments’ reason for being in Kilkenny: 

To many, the pillar was a symbol of Imperialism – its bombing was timed to  mark the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Rising. But even the rubble left behind  was unwanted and these pieces were almost dumped. How they arrived in  Kilkenny is still debated, but it seems the admiration for the stone carvers’ skill  is what brought them to the home of Irish craft and design. 

Section 7: Conclusion  

Nelson’s Pillar is central to Ireland’s history of anti-colonial and post-colonial iconoclasm from the 17th century to today. The pillar illustrates how placing an image of a person in the public domain of an urban space leads to a multitude of interpretations. Nelson’s place in Dubliners’ collective memory of their urban geography is neither stable nor as coherent as some museums would have visitors believe.  

This case study brings to light the complexities behind the curation of fragmented controversial monuments using a comparative methodology. Rather than seeking to identify optimal practices, this case study foregrounds the importance of critically reading how fragments of controversial monuments are contextualized through labels, displays, and the other objects placed around them. By manipulating exhibition space, museums and other institutions determine how narratives of Nelson’s Pillar are told. The result is a mosaic-like history of the pillar that continues to be modified and expanded. 

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