Statue of James Larkin on O’Connell Street
I was quite impressed with the breadth of O’Connell Street. It is Dublin’s most important street and much has been done to prevent it from deteriorating. The latest addition was the controversial Spire of Dublin. However, even before that, O’Connell Street was already important back then. As with famous streets, there are usually a lot of people visiting and efforts are made to make the street interesting. In this case, there were a few monuments build in strategic areas of the street. The way O’Connell Street is laid out, it runs from north to south and there are two streets one going north and one going south. Running between them both is an island where pedestrians can look around. This where all of the monuments are placed.
Shopping Center at O’Connell Street
The monuments here are of people who have played a significant role in the history or Dublin or Ireland itself. People like Sir John Gray, James Larkin and Charles Parnell who happens to have a street named after him nearby. I am not really familiar with these people, though if they built a monmument for them, I’m sure they have to important. There used to be a monument to Admiral Lord Nelson, but it was blown up by activists during the Troubles and remained vacant for a while until the erection of the Spire of Dublin. The monuments here were erected over the course of decades with the oldest having been built in 1864. It is things like these the give streets more character. I hope they continue to improve this street in the future.
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