The Wellington Monument

The tallest obelisk in Europe was built to commemorate Arthur Wellesley, the First Duke of Wellington. It stands in the Phoenix Park in Dublin, and is a popular congregation point for families on a sunny Sunday outing.

I spent many a happy day climbing the awkwardly angled steps around the base, and admiring the bronze friezes depicting the victories of the Iron Duke. The bronze, so the story goes, was melted down from French cannons captured at Waterloo.

The survival of this monument following Irish independence from the United Kingdom is a testimony to the birth of Arthur Wesley (spelling intentional) who was born at Mornington House on Merrion Street in Dublin. His parents were the 1st Earl of Mornington and the Countess of Mornington and their seat was Dangan Castle in Summerhill County Meath.

Wesley himself preferred to be regarded as British, if not English. When he was building his career in India he changed the spelling of his surname to differentiate himself from his older brother who inherited the Earldom. He was at pains to point out that though Jesus was born in a stable he was not a horse. He did not consider himself Irish, but the Irish claimed him, and this in part is what saved the monument.

Unlike the Boyne Obelisk the Wellington Monument was not a raw statement of the English oppression of Ireland. It celebrated the man, not the regime. Dublin had another monument that celebrated the man, Nelson’s Pillar. Completed in 1809 to commemorate the victor of the Battle of the Nile, Copenhagen and Trafalgar, it was damaged in March 1966, the month and year my younger brother was born. The IRA detonated a bomb that removed the Admiral from the monument. Unfortunately it cracked the granite pillar which then had to be demolished by the Irish Army.

Lord Nelson was an Englishman and his presence in Sackville St. which was named for the Lord Lieutenant who constructed the Boyne Monument, just did not sit well in Ireland. Sackville St. became O’Connell St. after the Great Emancipator, Daniel O’Connell. Nelson was illegally removed, but there was not a lot of effort expended in tracking down the perpetrators. The rubble was cleared away and for most Irish people it was a problem solved rather than an act of vandalism. The site of the Pillar is now occupied by the Dublin Spire.

The original plan for the Wellington Monument was to place it in the City Centre in Merrion Square, where the Irish Parliament Buildings can now be found. The residents objected and as a result it was constructed in the Phoenix Park. I believe the location also benefited it’s survival. Nelson’s pillar was a constant presence of daily life, looming over the work of the city. Wellington’s monument sits outside of the daily grind and is associated with hours of leisure and pleasure instead of with the daily grind.

The foundation stone for the Wellington Monument was laid in 1817. The obelisk was completed by 1822 and the plan was to erect an equestrian bronze statue of he Duke nearby. The pedestal was completed by 1822 but funds were short for the bronzes. When the Duke passed away in 1852 it was still unfinished. The project became something of an embarassment so the unfinished pedestal was dismantled and the available funds were used to install the bronzes on the obelisk. It opened to the public in 1861.

It was the tallest obelisk in the world when it topped out in 1822, but because of all the faffing about with the Bronze the Americans officially completed the Bunker Hill Obelisk in 1843 and made it 5 metres taller than the Wellington Monument.

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