A Tale of Two Monuments

spire, originally uploaded by Peanut99.

The wedge on the right part of that photo is not an errant needle. It is the Dublin Spire, officially known as the "Monument of Light." At 400 feet tall this stainless steel spike punctures the skyline of a mostly horizontal city.

What is truly spectacular about the Spire is that it stands on the site of Nelson's Pillar. An IRA bomb demolished the top part of the Pillar in 1966 - nobody was hurt or killed by the blast. In fact, many Irish seemed happy that the monument to their British colonial past had suffered such a blow. Several folk-style songs, such as Up Went Nelson, commended the bombers and quickly rose to the top of the Irish radio.

One early morning in the year of 'sixty six,
A band of Irish laddies were knocking up some tricks,
They thought Horatio Nelson had over stayed a mite,
So they helped him on his way with some sticks of gelignite.

While the Spire has its own share of detractors, it is not nearly as unpopular as its predecessor. There is no "visitors center" or other means of interpretation on the site. A coil of metal at street-level is said to signify prehistoric Celtic megaliths. Beyond that the site is entirely void of description. As Witold Rybczynski says, the Spire "gains its power from its engineering, rather than from symbolism."