On March 8 1966 the upper section of the Nelson's Pillar was blown up by a bomb planted by some former IRA members. I was a child and living with my family in Dublin, about 2 miles from the City Center. Up to that moment I (and probably most other Dublin residents) knew almost nothing about this monument, even though it was such a famous Dublin Landmark. To us, Admiral Nelson was the guy on top of the pillar on O'Connell Street, where all the buses arrived and departed from "Town".

The evening after the explosion our dad brought us into town to see the damage. The area around the former pillar was roped off and to our delight Dublin Corporation workers were handing out broken pieces of granite from the statue as memorabilia. Two days after the original damage, Irish Army engineers blew up the rest of the pillar, which had by then been given the name "The Stump". This planned demolition caused more destruction on O'Connell Street than the original blast, breaking many windows and causing amused Dubliners to roll their eyes and joke about how the authorities "should have got the original boys back to finish the job".

As if all this wasn't enough drama, some students from the National College of Art and Design stole the statue's head from a storage shed in Clanbrassil Street as a fund-raising prank to pay off a Student Union's debt on St. Patrick's Day . They leased the head for £200 a month to an antiques dealer in London for his shop window. It also appeared in a women's stocking commercial, shot on Killiney Beach, and on the stage of the Olympia Theatre with The Dubliners. The students finally gave the head to the Lady Nelson of the day about six months after taking it. It is now in the Civic Museum in Dublin.

The "Nelson Pillar", more commonly known in Dublin as "Nelson's Pillar", was erected in 1808, at Sackville Street (now O'Connell Street), Dublin, to honour Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar, three years after his death.

Dublin Corporation had originally rejected its construction, but was overruled by the Duke of Richmond, the British Lord Lieutenant. For the next 150 years it remained a very unpopular, and yet, very popular landmark - unpopular because it reminded the Irish people of British rule, and popular because it became a central meeting place and a hive of great activity in downtown Dublin.

Michael Collins was born in 1890 in Sams Cross, Co. Cork. At 16 years of age he went to London and worked in West Kensington. While in London he joined the secret Irish nationalist group, the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). The IRB believed in the creation of an Irish Republic. He returned to Dublin from London in 1916 and was quickly appointed staff officer of the Volunteers by Joseph Plunkett, the IRB's military expert. Here he worked closely with two other IRB members, Thomas Clarke and Sean Mac Diarmada. During the Easter Rising, he fought in the GPO alongside Padrig MacPiarias and James Connolly, two of the leaders of the Rising... continued...

This Issue's Featured Image : Dublin - Duibh Linn Historical Names of Places The Jack B. Yeats Collection Jack B. Yeats (1871 - 1957) was a member of the famous Yeats family and brother to W.B. Yeats (a celebrated Irish artist). He began this collection in the early 1920s (which he named "Historical Names of Places"). It was initially as a commercial venture in an attempt to create some much needed income for the then struggling family, by selling reprints on the American market. These beautiful water colour pictures were representations of the mythological meaning of the names of Irish towns and cities. Unfortunately due to lack of sales the collection was never finished, and the copyright for the initial 52 pictures was sold to Carroll's Cigarette Company. For many years a card size version of any one of these pictures was found inside a packet of Carroll's cigarettes. When the copyright expired in the 1960s the cigarette company discontinued the promotion and the collection fell into the public domain. It is our estimation that if this amazing collection had been completely finished it would have amounted to well over 500 pictures. DUBLIN - DUIBH-LINN. DUBH'S POOL - The name Duibh-linn, "Dubh's Pool", commemorates Dubh, a jealous wife who drowned her rival by magic, and was herself drowned in this pool, into which she fell stunned by a shot from her rival's gillie, Mairgine (whence Merrion). The full Irish name of the city is Baile atha cliath duibhlinne, "Hurdleford town of Dubh's pool". The Norsemen who settled here about 850, called it Dyfflin, "the black pool". Having given up piracy for trading, they became Christians and built Holy Trinity Cathedral. They shut their gates in 1169 against Mac Murchada and his foreign auxiliaries, but the city was entered by perfidy and bacame Strongbow's prize.