Nelson's Pillar
Nelson's Pillar on O'Connell St.
(universally referred to as
Nelson's Pillar) was a large granite pillar with a statue of
Lord Nelson on top, located in the centre of
O'Connell Street in
Dublin. Erected in honour of
Admiral
Horatio Nelson in the early nineteenth century, it offered Dubliners the city's best public viewing platform. It was designed by Francis Johnson, the architect who built the
General Post Office (to the left of the picture opposite). Johnson and later architects laid out Sackville Street (now O'Connell Street) so that the buildings, the GPO and the Pillar were in scale to the size and length of the street and to each other. Nelson's Pillar was controversially blown up without warning early one morning in
1966 by republicans. A number of pedestrians and motorists had near escapes as large chunks of stone from the monument were flung around the vicinity.
A new monument, known as the Spire of Dublin, was erected on the long vacant site in January 2003.
The remains of Nelson's Pillar on O'Connell St. after its destruction.
