To continue on with my earlier post regarding the statues of my birth city...a few more need to be covered. So here goes on one more for the moment; The Millenium Spire:
As usual The Irish Government regardless of which party is in power always tend to feck things up, especially when it comes to the innocous and innocous is not what you would call this monument.
They decide to celebrate the millenium with....a 1,000 ft spike in the middle of O'Connell Street. Can you walk up it to view the City of Dublin & hinterland, er no...has it any useful purpose, er no but Bertie & his chums decreed, "we'll put up a spike anyway!".
It was to be beside the Anna Livia monument anyway so the wags were already letting fly with among others "The spike in the dike" & my favourite "Viagra Falls".
The City Fathers decided that there was not enough room for both structures so "Anna" was supposed to be moved to DCU (Dublin City University) or as the Dubs say, UCD for dyxlesics but I believe she will be placed beside the Liffey at Croppy's acre.
So now the spike stands sentinel in O'Connell street. The area which surrounds it is not exactly prosperous so it has been named the lovely "stiletto in the ghetto", the "spire in the mire", the nail in the pale"-( pale being the old Irish description of the Anglo controlled Irish territory of which Dublin was the centerpoint in the 16th century). Other names include "The Metropole", "the Rod to God", "the Pin in the Bin", "the Erection at the Intersection", "the North Pole" (O'Connell Street is on the northside of Dublin) and the wonderful "Stiffy by the Liffey."
There's a couple more edifices I'll write about but another day beckons for that.
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