List of public art in Dublin

This is a list of public art on permanent public display in Dublin, Ireland. The list applies only to works of public art accessible in a public space; it does not include artwork on display inside museums. Public art may include sculptures, statues, monuments, memorials, murals and mosaics.

Public art in Dublin is a significant feature of the cityscape. The city's statues and other monuments have a long history of controversy about their subjects and designs, and a number of formerly prominent monuments have been removed or destroyed. Dublin is particularly well known for nicknaming some of its monuments.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Public art in North city centre

O'Connell Street

Name	Image	Location	Artist	Year	Nickname	Source
Father Pat Noise memorial		O'Connell Bridge				[6]
Daniel O'Connell		O'Connell Street	John Henry Foley	1880
William Smith O'Brien		O'Connell Street
Sir John Gray		O'Connell Street
James Larkin		O'Connell Street	Oisín Kelly	1977
Spire of Dublin		O'Connell Street	Ian Ritchie Architects	2003	"The Stiletto in the Ghetto" "The Syringe in The Binge" "The Nail in The Pale" "The Pin in The Bin" "The Bertie Pole" "The Spire in The Mire" "The Stiffey on the Liffey" "Metal Mickey" (mickey being slang for penis) "The Pole in The Hole" "The Rod to God"	[7][8][9][10]
Cú Chulainn		GPO, O'Connell Street	Oliver Sheppard	1911 (installed at GPO 1935)
Theobald Mathew		O'Connell Street	Mary Redmond	1891
Charles Stewart Parnell		O'Connell Street	Augustus Saint-Gaudens	1910

Other locations

Name	Image	Location	Artist	Year	Nickname	Source
Dublin and Monaghan bombings Memorial		Talbot Street		1997
James Joyce		North Earl Street			"The Prick with the Stick"	[11][12]
Margaret Ball and Francis Taylor		Cathedral Street
Daniel Murray		St Mary's Pro-Cathedral
Brendan Behan		Royal Canal, Dorset Street	John Coll	2003
Peadar Kearney		Lower Dorset Street
Anna Livia The River Liffey		Croppies Memorial Park, previously in O'Connell Street	Éamonn O'Doherty	2011 (1988)	"The Floozie in the Jacuzzi" "The hoor in the Sewer"	[12][13]
James Connolly		Beresford Place	Éamonn O'Doherty	1996		[14]
Famine Great Famine		Custom House Quay	Rowan Gillespie	1997		[15]
World Poverty Stone UN International Day for the Eradication of World Poverty		Custom House Quay	Stuart McGrath	2008		[15]
Universal Links on Human Rights Jails holding prisoners of conscience		Amiens Street	Tony O'Malley	1995		[14]
Two Women		Lower Liffey Street			"Hags with the bags"	[12][16]
Custom House Memorial		Memorial Road	Yann Goulet	1957
Children of Lir		Garden of Remembrance, Parnell Square	Oisín Kelly	1966
Chariot of Life		Abbey Street	Oisín Kelly	1982
The Wishing Hand		Marlborough Street	Linda Brunker	2001		[17]
NC Iris		Mayor Square, IFSC	Vivienne Roche	2006		[14]
Strong Striking Bear		IFSC
Ag Crú na Gréine (cow)		Wolfe Tone Square, Jervis Street	Jackie McKenna	2003		[18]
Two Children		Portland Row

Public art in South city centre

Trinity College

Name	Image	Location	Artist	Year	Nickname	Source
Edmund Burke		Trinity College	John Henry Foley	1868
Oliver Goldsmith		Trinity College	John Henry Foley	1864
William Lecky		Trinity College
George Salmon		Trinity College	John Hughes
Campanile		Trinity College	Charles Lanyon, Thomas Kirk	1853
Sphere Within Sphere		Trinity College	Arnaldo Pomodoro		"The half-eaten Malteser" "The Death Star"	[19]

St. Stephen's green

Name	Image	Location	Artist	Year	Nickname	Source
Fusiliers' Arch Royal Dublin Fusiliers		St Stephen's Green			"Traitors' Gate"	[20]
Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa		St Stephen's Green
James Joyce		St Stephen's Green
Lord Ardilaun		St Stephen's Green
Fianna Éireann memorial		St Stephen's Green		1966
Robert Emmet		St Stephen's Green
Tom Kettle		St Stephen's Green
Constance Markievicz		St Stephen's Green
Three Fates		St Stephen's Green
Lady Laura Grattan Font		St Stephen's Green North
James Clarence Mangan		St Stephen's Green	Oliver Sheppard	1909
Standing Figure: Knife Edge, William Butler Yeats memorial		St Stephen's Green	Henry Moore	1961
Rabindranath Tagore		St Stephen's Green	2011
Rose Bowl		St Stephen's Green
Great Famine Monument		St Stephen's Green
Wolfe Tone		St Stephen's Green	Edward Delaney	1967	"Tonehenge"	[21][22][23][24]

Merrion Square Park

Name	Image	Location	Artist	Year	Nickname	Source
Oscar Wilde		Merrion Square Park	Danny Osborne	1997	"The Quare in the Square" "The fag on the crag" "The Queer with the Leer"	[2][12][18][25][19][26]
Michael Collins		Merrion Square Park	Dick Joynt	1990		[18]
Joker's Chair Dermot Morgan		Merrion Square Park	Catherine Greene	2002		[18]
Éire sculpture		Merrion Square Park	Jerome Connor	1976
Bernardo O'Higgins		Francisco Orellano Pavez	1995
The Victims		Merrion Square Park	Andrew O'Connor	1976
National Memorial to Members of the Defence Forces		Merrion Square Park	Brian King	2008

Other locations

Name	Image	Location	Artist	Year	Nickname	Source
Thomas Davis		College Green	Edward Delaney	1966
Henry Grattan		College Green	John Henry Foley	1876
Thomas Moore		College Street
Long Stone replica		College Street	Cliodhna Cussen	1986
Phil Lynott		Harry Street	Paul Daly	2005	"The Ace with the Bass"	[27]
Molly Malone		Suffolk Street, previously Grafton Street			"The Tart with the Cart" "The Dish with the Fish" "The Dolly with the Trolley" "The Trollop with the Scallops"	[12][28][29][30][31]
William Plunket		Kildare Street
The Kiss		Earlsfort Terrace	Rowan Gillespie	1989
Leinster Lawn Cenotaph Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins, Kevin O'Higgins		Leinster Lawn, Leinster House				[32]
Prince Albert		Leinster Lawn, Leinster House	John Henry Foley	1868
Thomas Heazle Parke		Natural History Museum, Merrion Street
Birdy		Upper Mount Street	Rowan Gillespie	1997
Memories of Mount Street		Lower Mount Street	Anthony FitzSimons	1988
Patrick Kavanagh		Grand Canal	John Coll	1991	"The Crank on the Bank" "Banal at the Canal"	[2][33]
Liberty Scaling the Heights		Grand Canal Street
Constance Markievicz		Tara Street
Crann an Óir		Central Bank, Dame Street	Éamonn O'Doherty	1991		[34]
Harmony		Pearse Street	Sandra Bell	1998		[14]
Benjamin Guinness		St Patrick's cathedral	John Henry Foley	1875
Wood Quay		Wood Quay	Michael Warren	2002
Matt Talbot		Sir John Rogerson's Quay	James Power	1988		[14]
Merchant Seamen Memorial		Sir John Rogerson's Quay
Admiral William Brown		Sir John Rogerson's Quay		2006		[14]
The Linesman		City Quay	Dony MacManus	1999		[14]
Padraig Sheahan Memorial		Hawkins Street
Mr. Screen		Screen Cinema, Hawkins Street	Vincent Browne	1988
Dublin Yeomanry Memorial		St. Andrew Street
St Andrew		St. Andrew Street		1803
People's Island (Footprints)		Traffic island at junction of D'Olier Street and Westmoreland Street	Rachel Joynt	1988
Veronica Guerin		Dubhlinn Gardens, Dublin Castle	John Coll	2001
Garda Memorial Garden		Dubhlinn Gardens, Dublin Castle	Anna Dolan, OPW	2010
Proclamation group Proclamation of the Irish Republic		Kilmainham Gaol	Rowan Gillespie	2007
Liberty Bell		St. Patrick's Park	Vivienne Roche	1988
Sentinel		Patrick's Street	Vivienne Roche	1994

Public art in Northside suburbs

Name	Image	Location	Artist	Year	Nickname	Source
Wellington Monument		Phoenix Park	Robert Smirke	1861
Phoenix Column		Phoenix Park		1747
Papal Cross Pope John Paul II's visit to Ireland		Phoenix Park		1979
O'Connell Tower		Glasnevin Cemetery
Double Helix		National Botanic Gardens	Charles Jencks	2013		[35]
Seán Russell		Fairview Park		2009 (original stone statue 1951)
Realt na Mára Star of the Sea		North Bull Wall		1972
Dancing Couple Stardust fire		Stardust Memorial Park, Coolock
Misneach		Main Street, Ballymun				[36][37]
Windsculpture		Clontarf Road / Alfie Byrne Road	Eamon O'Doherty	1988
Howth Fishermens' Association Memorial		Howth Harbour		1994		[38]
Realt na Mára		Howth Pier		2013		[38]
Spirit of the Air		Dublin Airport roundabout	Richard Enda King	1991

Public art in Southside suburbs

Name	Image	Location	Artist	Year	Nickname	Source
Reflections		Bank of Ireland HQ, Baggot Street	Michael Bulfin	1978		[39]
Freedom		AIB Bank Centre, Merrion Road	Alexandra Wejchert			[40]
Statue of a fiddler and three children dancing		Stillorgan Shopping Centre	Imogen Stuart			[41]
Noah's Egg		Veterinary building, UCD	Rachel Joynt	2004
Mothership		Glasthule	Rachel Joynt	1999
An Cailín Bán		Sandymount Strand	Sebastian	2002
Blackrock Dolmen		Blackrock	Rowan Gillespie	1987
Queen Victoria Fountain		Dún Laoghaire
George IV Obelisk		Dún Laoghaire		1823		[42]
Christ the King		Dún Laoghaire	Andrew O'Connor	1978		[42]
Killiney Hill Obelisk		Killiney Hill	John Mapas	1742

Past public art

Name	Image	Location	Artist	Notes	Nickname	Source
George II		St Stephen's Green		Blown up in 1937		[43]
William of Orange		College Green	Grinling Gibbons	Blown up in 1946
Sir Philip Crampton		College Street	John Kirk	Erected in 1862, removed in 1959.	"The Water-babe" "The cauliflower"	[44]
Queen Victoria		Leinster House, Kildare Street	John Hughes	Erected in 1904. Removed in 1947, put on display in Sydney, Australia in 1987.	"The auld bitch"	[45][46][47]
Nelson's Pillar		O'Connell Street	Francis Johnston William Wilkins Thomas Kirk	Erected in 1809, blown up in 1966.
William Blakeney		O'Connell Street	John Nost	Erected in 1759, removed in 1808.
Bowl of Light & flowerbed		O'Connell Bridge		The flames of the Bowl of Light were thrown into the Liffey in 1953. The ugly raised flowerbed on which the sculpture originally rested was first nicknamed "The Thing" and later 'The Tomb of the Unknown Gurrier'.	"The Tomb of the Unknown Gurrier"	[48][49]
Gough Monument		Phoenix Park	John Henry Foley	Badly damaged by a bomb in 1957		[37][50]
Millennium Clock		River Liffey		Removed in 1999	"The Chime in the Slime" "The Clock in the Dock"	[12][33]

References

1. In Dublin fashion, Joycean monuments have been greeted with irreverent rhymes, p. 326, at Google Books
2. Schwangere Auster und Hohler Zahn: 555 Gebäudebeinamen und was dahinter steckt, p. 70, at Google Books
3. Dubliners have cultivated the slightly cutesy habit of giving abusive rhyming nicknames to the city's sculptures, p. 4, at Google Books
4. No piece of public statuary can be said to have entered Irish public consciousness without being christened with a derisive rhyming nickname, p. 155, at Google Books
5. Les Dublinois ont beaucoup d'humour et prennent un malin plaisir à affubler les statues et les monuments de leur ville avec des sobriquets souvent comiques et parfois assez trash, p. 163, at Google Books
6. "Hoax Plaque on Bridge Will Now be Left In Place". The Irish Times. 24 May 2007. Retrieved 27 June 2007.
7. Margaret Greenwood, Mark Connolly, Geoff Wallis: The Rough Guide to Ireland, p. 111, at Google Books
8. The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English: J-Z, p. 1515, at Google Books
9. The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, p. RA1-PA2004-IA79, at Google Books
10. "The Spire | Dublin City Council". dublincity.ie. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
11. The Cambridge Companion to English Novelists at Google Books
12. Gerry Boland. A Stroller's Guide to Dublin. Gill & Macmillan, 1999. p. 21. ISBN 0717127885
13. The Form of Cities: Political Economy and Urban Design, p. 148, at Google Books
14. "Public Art in Dublin's Docklands". Docklands Authority. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
15. "The Famine Memorial and The World Poverty Stone". Dublin Docklands. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
16. Chris Dowding: A Few Drops Short of a Pint, p. 88, at Google Books
17. "Wishing Hand by Linda Brunker". infomatique.org. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
18. "Art in Parks" (PDF). Dublin City Council. 2014. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
19. The Rough Guide to Dublin, p. 61, at Google Books
20. McCracken, Donal P. (2003). Forgotten Protest: Ireland and the Anglo-Boer War. Ulster Historical Foundation. p. 148. ISBN 9781903688182.
21. Heroic Revivals from Carlyle to Yeats, p. 112, at Google Books
22. Dublin, p. 74, at Google Books
23. DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Ireland, p. 61, at Google Books
24. Ireland. 4th ed. Lonely Planet, 2000. p. 155. ISBN 0864427530
25. Dunn, T. R. (2014). ""The Quare in the Square": Queer Memory, Sensibilities, and Oscar Wilde". Quarterly Journal of Speech. 100 (2): 213. doi:10.1080/00335630.2014.959987.
26. "Sites to see before you die". The Irish Times. 21 June 2008.
27. Dublin City Trip 2011, p. 10, at Google Books
28. Pauline Frommer's Ireland, p. 51, at Google Books
29. Ireland. 4th ed. Lonely Planet, 2000. p. 154. ISBN 0864427530
30. History of Ireland, p. 25, at Google Books
31. Frommer's Dublin Day By Day, p. 10, at Google Books
32. "Story of most elusive memorial revealed". Irish Examiner. 27 June 2008.
33. Hickey, Raymond. Dublin English: Evolution and Change (John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2005), p. 144, at Google Books
34. "Crann an Óir". publicart.ie. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
35. "Sculpture of DNA double helix unveiled at the National Botanic Gardens | maxwellphotographyblog". maxwellphotographyblog.wordpress.com. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
36. Statue of a young girl on horseback, with the girl modelled on Ballymun teenager Toni Marie Shields
37. "Ballymun gets a new local hero". The Irish Times. 10 September 2010.
38. "Monuments & Points of Historical Interest". HowthIsMagic.com. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
39. "Bank of Ireland, 50-55 Baggot Street, Dublin 2 | Built Dublin". builtdublin.com. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
40. Jean-Louis Cornez. "Alexandra Wejchert - "Freedom"". alexandrawejchert.eu. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
41. "Stillorgan shopping centre". fantasyjackpalance.com. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
42. "Dlr sculpture trail map". DLR County Council. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
43. "stephens-green.jpg". fantasyjackpalance.com. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
44. "A historical junction | Come here to me!". comeheretome.com. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
45. Bagnall, Gaynor (2008). Introducing Cultural Studies. Pearson Education. p. 119. ISBN 1405858435.
46. "World's Most Controversial Monuments (no.26)". Travel+Leisure. November 2011. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
47. "Queen Victoria Facts and Trivia". Queen Victoria Online. 2011. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
48. O'Dwyer, Frederick. Lost Dublin. (HarperCollins 1982).
49. "Photo: Flowerbed". img.photobucket.com. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
50. Bought by a member of the Guinness family from the Office of Public Works. It was loaned to Humphrey Wakefield of Chillingham Castle. It is on loan until the people of Ireland want it returned.

External links

• Map, pictures & stories of all important Dublin statues

Coordinates: 53°20′46″N 6°15′25″W / 53.34611°N 6.25702°W