Irish Arts Review

John Henry Foley's O'Connell MonumentAuthor(s): Paula MurphySource: Irish Arts Review Yearbook, Vol. 11 (1995), pp. 155-156Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20492827 .

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JOHN HENRY FOLEY'S O'CONNELL MONUMENT

The nature and content of Dublin's best-known statue are studied by Paula Murphy.

T he O'Connell Monument for Dublin's Sackville Street (O'Connell Street) was the most important sculptural com

mission of the nineteenth century in Ireland,' and as such it is of interest to be examined in political and social terms. Executed by John Henry Foley, the monument is three-tiered with the fig ure of O'Connell, larger than lifesize, positioned on top of a circular support, the bronze drum of which carries representa tions of the people of Ireland approaching the figure of Erin (Fig. 1). At the base are four female Victories recording the means employed by O'Connell to achieve success: Patriotism, Courage, Eloquence and Fidelity. The overall design of the monument has its source in European public sculpture.

The bronze drum is the main area of interest in a social read ing of this monument. The sculpted drum is a particularly creative development in the presentation of monumental statu ary as it transforms the more habitually pedestrian pedestal area and offers scope to the sculptor's imaginative and technical abil ities. Its use in the O'Connell Monument serves a number of purposes, one of which is to inform, beyond the spiritual nature of the portrait.2 When Foley presented his sketch model to the

O'Connell Monument Committee for approval in 1867, he pointed out in an accompanying statement that the design was intended to record the gratitude of the Irish people of all classes for the blessings of Civil and Religious Liberty obtained by the labours of O'Connell.3 It is on the drum that the people of Ireland are rep resented, and Foley indicated that the wave like pattem circling the plinth just below these figures was intended to symbolise the island nation, surrounded by water.4 Foley's reference to 'all classes' of Irish people does not, howev er, include both genders.

While poet, peasant, politician and priest, amongst others, are rep resented, women are excluded, and are only present on the monu ment in allegorical form, as symbol of O'Connell's attributes in the

Victories and, more independently, in the figure of Erin. Positioned centrally on the drum and of more heroic proportions than her attendant mortals, Erin, with shamrock in her hair and her harp nestling in her drapery, stands boldly pointing aloft to O'Connell and trampling chains underfoot. This figure incorpo rates multi-symbolism of a maternal nature: Mother Ireland, as goddess from Celtic and nationalist mythology; Mother Church, the cult of Mary indicative of religious dominance; and, perhaps

more significantly, Mother Earth, for so long the only real power of women in Ireland, confined and domestic.5 It is of interest that bishop and peasant are placed closest to Erin while peer and politician are farthest away on the back of the monument.

If Foley drew attention to 'the blessings of Civil and Religious Liberty' in his statement, the monument was to focus more par ticularly on the religious element. While at the model stage the sculptor describes the figure of Erin as holding a record of

O'Connell's achievements in her hand, this was altered in the final monument to refer specifically to Catholic Emancipation, detailing in prominent lettering 'An Act for the Relief of His Majesty's Roman Catholic Subjects' (Fig. 2). A further change

was to the drum where the musician was to hold a score with the accompanying verse inscribed:

Oh where's the slave so lowly,

Condemn'd to chains unholy

Who, could he burst His bonds at first, Would pine beneath

them slowly.6

These are the first lines of Tom Moore's melody entitled 'Oh! Where's the slave;7 which was sung at the Moore com

memoration held in Dublin shortly after the balladeer's death in 1852.8 While a fragment of a musical score, the notation of which is not unrelated to the melody, is to be seen on the

monument (Fig. 3), the accompanying lyrics were not included in the final work.

The O'Connell Monument is both of

and for the people and

1. John Henry FOLEY (1818-74): The O'Connell Monument, Dublin; detail of the bronze

drum showing the figure of Erin, positioned centrally and pointing upwards to O'Connell as she tramples chains underfoot.

155 IRISH ARTS REVIEW

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JOHN HENRY FOLEY'S O'CONNELL MONUMENT

2. John Henry FOLEY (1818-74): The O'Connell Monument, Dublin; detail of the bronze drum showing the scroll held by Erin which records 'An Act for the Relief of His

Majesty's Roman Catholic Subjects'.

3. John Henry FOLEY (1818-74): The O'Connell Monument; detail of the bronze drum showing a fragment of the musical score of Moore's Melody, 'Oh where's the slave so

lowly/ Condemned to chains unholy'.

Foley has in a skilful way combined reverence and accessibility. There is no doubt that O'Connell is firm ly positioned above the people - the portrait statue on top of the drum where the people are represented - and that he is accorded heroic stature, as he is larger in scale than the figures on the drum. It is also the case that the Victory females might be read as protec tive guardians, introducing a note of separateness between the heroic and the humble. However, when compared with other monumental statuary in position in Dublin at the time, this monument reveals a new accessibility as the sculptural work and includes repre sentation of the people, who are, effectively, supporting O'Connell. Peter Springer, in a lengthy study of the role of the support in monumental sculp ture, indicates the way in which the pedestal is used to elevate the person portrayed and separate that figure from the viewer.9 While he addresses two Dublin mon uments, the Nelson Column and the O'Connell

Monument, amongst many other works, he fails, in his argument, to identify the way in which the three tiered format of the latter and its spread at the base,

which Foley himself described as being in the form of an ancient Irish cross laid horizontally,'" reaches out towards the observer in contrast with the lofty posi tion of Nelson, soaring beyond contact.

Public monuments of this nature incorporated a functional element in that they were expected to be didactic and to exercise a moralizing influence. When Foley exhibited his sketch model for the O'Connell

Monument in the City Hall in Dublin in 1867, an edi torial in The Freeman's Joumal, noted the current state of discontent and discord in Irish society and dared to hope that the 'work of art, a source of National pride, may exercise the humanizing influence that art is acknowledged to possess, and that, at least, all classes of Irishmen may, at the base of O'Connell's statue, lay down (their) personal and class animosities'." It was not expected that there would be a long delay between the enthusiastic acceptance of Foley's design and his completion of the monument and that therefore it would soon be in place; the O'Connell Monument, however, was not erected and unveiled until 1882.

DR PAULA MURPHY is a Lecturer in History of Art in University College Dublin.

1. For details of the commission see Homan

Potterton, The O'Connell Monument, Gatherum Series No 3, Gifford & Craven, Cork, 1973. Also the Archive in the City Hall, Dublin has an extensive collection of articles on the subject of the monument

taken from contemporary newspapers. Ms Ch 6/ 1 and 6/2 are particularly relevant.

2. Foley's use of a sculpted drum support and

the informative possibilities inherent in it were to directly influence Thomas Farrell in

his statue of Cardinal Cullen erected in the St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Dublin in 1882.

3. Foley's statement to the Committee is

reproduced, along with a report of the meet

ing, in the The Freeman s Journal, 14 December 1867.

4. ibid.

5. Representations of Erin and their meaning are explored in Belinda Loftus,

Mirrors-William III and Mother Ireland, Picture Press, Co Down, 1990.

6. The verse is recorded in the report of the O'Connell Monument Committee meeting

in The Freeman s Journal, December 14, 1867.

7. I am grateful to Dr Rionach Ui Ogain, of the Irish Folklore Department in University

College Dublin, for identifying the melody. 8. David Hammond, (ed.), A Centenary

Selection from Moore's Melodies, Gilbert

Dalton, Dublin, 1979. 9. Peter Springer, 'Rhetorik der

Standhaftigkeit, Monument und Sockel nach dem Ende des traditionellen

Denkmals', Wa?raf- Richartz-Jahrbuch, 1987/8, Vol. 48/49, pp. 365-408.

10. The Freeman's Journal, December 14, 1867. 11. The Freeman's Journal, December 17, 1867.

156 IRISH ARTS REVIEW

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