THE DUBLIN STATUES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2821, 12 July 1916, Page 8

THE DUBLIN STATUES

.WONDERFUL - ESCAPES OF SOME WORKS OF ART. The "Freeman's Journal" gives an interesting account of the way .in which Eomo famous Dublin statues faied (luring the rebellion.- Many of t'.em, although in the middle of the irouble, oscapcd practically unscathed. It is curious to. note how narrowly they itiau.aged to.preserve their features: St. Gauden's masterpiece of Parnell was struck by bullets on both arms, but beyond these slight indentations the figure was untouched. Alley's masterpiece of O'Connell had even greater lnck, though in greater peril, for it t-ub in tho very line of a hot firing. The bronzo figures all escaped without a mark, but the massive pediment was struck in many places. ' Farrell's sthtue of Sir John Gray was hit y-veral tunes, tho pediment bearing abundant traces of the fusillading, biit -no. very serious ■ damage • was done. Miss iledmond's Biatuo of Father Jlathew, v hich was right in tho centre of some ef the hottost interchanges, .was i.ot - even once Istriick. It 'has been said fat three attempts, were made by tho insurgents to blow up the Nelson loomunent, but there are 'no evidences r-f them. The towering column .is, howevor,- peppered from ,its very baso almost to the railings around the statue itself. Some of the clusters of 'bullet-.'iiarks would neem to.indicate that it bad teen vsed for target-practice. These are-in its centre. : A few shots. have - left their marks fully ninety feet up from the ]ev«- of the street. Farrolrs exquisite figure of Smith O'Brien was not touched, and cscapsil siot.freo in »jl his inglorious discolouration. All the Foley statues in College Groen—Grattsn, Burke, and Goldsmith—are ui-1 armed. There is a head of time-honoured Aesculapius over the dcor cf tl'e Collegel of Surgeons, Stephen's (ireen, which has been left. The left <ye is quite hlack with the accmnillation of the dust and dirt and tho trickle of jcors, but tho right eye lias evidently leen cleaned out by a rifle l .shot, and the fi-thcr of medicine presents a most dilapidated, not to fay whimsical, appearance.

. The beauty of the fine f'-purns on tho top of the Post Office (adds the paper) is now, of course, but a memory of the past, but on the whole it is a i: alter of gratification that tho public art tif asures of tho city have come through their ordeal with such wonderful iiiivur.ilv.