lorddunkellin

Hoops, boots and statues

from National Library of Ireland on The Commons

• 22 older comments, and then…
• O Mac said:

  The plynth is now at Castlegar outside Galway City. It is now a war of Independence memorial. maps.app.goo.gl/6yKWUAoEKYARb6kb8 The statue above was sculpted by John Henry Foley and it disappeared after being pulled down and thrown into the Corrib during a town tenants rent revolt in 1922. Legend has it the Patrician Brass Band played "I'm forever blowing bubbles" as Dunkellan was being dragged down town. flic.kr/p/2j3TuRH

• beachcomber australia said:

  Ulick Canning de Burgh (1827–67), Lord Dunkellin
  
  From - galwaycitymuseum.ie/blog/lord-dunkellin-disappears-from-e...
  Good story!

• Carol Maddock said:

  O Mac I really hope the "I'm forever blowing bubbles" bit is true! Perfection.

• Carol Maddock said:

  From the Skibbereen Eagle, 3 June 1922:

  STATUE DESTROYED A scene, unique in the history of Galway, was witnessed at Eyre square on Thursday night, 25th inst., when Messrs. Stephen J. Cremin, Secretary of the Local Transport Workers, and W. J. Larkin, Dublin, headed some hundreds of town tenants, with a fife and drum band, who tore the bronze statue of Lord Dunkellin from its pedestal, and marched in triumph with it to Nimmos Pier, a mile distant. Here, amidst the shouts of the crowd, it was thrown into the sea. On Friday, apparently to prevent its recovery, it was taken up on the beach and the arms and legs sawn off. This action followed the threat of the Labour leaders, when they seized the Urban Council Chamber on Thursday and told the members of the Council, that, as the Chairman had not turned up to formulate their own scheme, and wipe out landlordism in Galway, and smash the symbol of it in the square. An effort to saw the bronze statue was first made, but this proved unavailing, and a wire rope was brought forward in a cart and fifty men dragged it from its pedestal. Subsequently Mr. Cremin mounted the pedestal and addressed the people. It is stated that if a signed requisition had been made to the Dail troops, who occupy the Railway Hotel, opposite the scene, and the County Club, which is less than fifty yards across the square, they would ahve protected the property of the Council, but no such requisition was made. ... Lord Dunkellin, who was one of the Clanricarde family, and a Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army, was born in 1827, and died in 1873. He was M.P. for Galway City and County, and the bronze statue, one of Foley's works, was erected in 1873 by public subscription. Flowers and the railings in the square were injured during the removal of the statue. At meetings, which were held subsequently, Messrs. Cremin and Larkin declared that they were determined to wipe out the slums of Galway, to wipe out every vestige of landlordism, to secure that no rents should be paid until this question was settled, to take charge of the Urban Council, and to see that the poor of Galway should be put into industries and given employment. If it was not, they would see about taking charge of those large establishments, and securing that others should not have silver spoons and every luxury whilst the workers starved.

• beachcomber australia said:

  💡There is a Stereo Pair version with no 'Hoop Boy' (as seen on the galway city museum link above). Must mean that today's photo is way back in the early 1880s, and/or soon after 1873 unveiling. catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000565236