Dublin never struggled to inSpire…
I arrived at Dublin airport at around 11am on Monday morning. Appreciate that it was actually 6am back home and I was lucky if I got an hour of sleep during the 10 hours on the way over. Upon arrival I could only think of sleeping but my travel directors wouldn’t hear of it. As soon as I put my bags were in my room our welcoming party rushed us into an orientation.
The students I was traveling with congregated outside the apartments. We went through the ritual orientation that barely informed us of anything, but it did the service of covering the host company’s ass. We were designated a generous hour to get our affairs in order and we were on our way… once again. Following the instructions we were given, we made a “quick right out of the gate and sort of a sharp left” which ran us into Henry Street.
Dublin was nice enough. It was a cute city but it failed to impress me at first sight. We made a right onto O’Connell and I was so deep in my state of dense delirium that I failed to even notice the 400 foot tall pillar that was standing right in front of me.
The spire in Dublin has the official title of “The Monument of Light” and is the tallest sculpture in the world. The exterior is coated in a shiny silver metallic. At the base of the statue is one of its most unique features. The contractor took a core sample of the earth where the spire would stand and cut the geological pattern into the three meter base of the sculpture. The spire actually replaced the “Nelson’s Pillar” which was destroyed in 1966 by an IRA bombing. The IRA was a paramilitary group that opposed the British influence. They destroyed the monument because of its symbolic representation of British power over the Irish.
After getting over my feelings of embarrassment for having missed a giant monument right in front of me, I couldn’t help but wonder how and why I’d never known that this piece of art existed. I always think of the United States as having a strong grasp on world culture but this was evidence that growing up in a particular geographical location had little to do with my knowledge of international monuments. This was a truly amazing sight and I even dropped my jaw a bit in awe.
The spire is a unique and valuable contribution to the city of Dublin. Being right in the middle of the city gives everyone the opportunity to see it and is an accurate representation of the city’s grand mentality. As I lost sight of the spire on my walk up the street, I knew that Dublin had only started to show me the mystique that she had hiding in her alleys. The next few weeks of my visit would prove to be eventful and my expectations would be exceeded.
