Sir, – The weekend before last was the centenary of the unveiling of the Parnell Monument in Dublin. It was unveiled on October 1st, 1911, after a monstrous procession through the streets of Dublin from St Stephen’s Green to Rutland Square.
Regrettably, there seems to have been no official recording of the first centenary.
The Parnell monument was the last public commission of the great Irish-American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Saint-Gaudens, famous for many extraordinary public monuments in America and for designing the most beautiful coin in the American coinage, was born at 35 Charlemont Street, Dublin on March 1st 1848, to an Irish mother and French father. The house, which still stands, now consists of consulting rooms attached to the Charlemont Clinic.
There is a wonderfully rich story behind the design and erection of this monument. When Saint-Gaudens was commissioned to do the work he went to great lengths and was very taken with the fact that it was for the city where he was born. He secured maps, pictures and plans of the area where the monument would stand in order to get the scale right. To get the figure of Parnell right he had Parnell’s Dublin tailor send him a set of the last clothes he had made for Parnell. When he was happy with his designs he had a full-size timber model of the monument erected at his studio in America and mounted a full-size clay model of Parnell on it such was his attention to scale and detail. Although he never returned to Ireland he did plan to attend the erection of the monument and to personally install the torch on its top. Unfortunately, due to ill health he did not live to see the finished monument.
To their great credit, Americans, who regard him as the greatest sculptor since Michelangelo, always refer to him as being Irish-American or Irish-born American, and this despite the fact that his family had emigrated to America before Augustus was six months old.
Regrettably, Saint-Gaudens is not commemorated or acknowledged in the city of his birth. There is no statue of him here and there isn’t even a plaque on the building to note the site of his birth. Perhaps some one in Fáilte Ireland, at the American embassy, or among those at Dublin City Council might do something to address this unfortunate oversight so that we can proudly rejoice in a little Dublin success in future years? – Yours, etc,