Sir, - Some recent references to the conical structure proposed as a replacement for the Nelson Pillar prompts me to issue a plea for the re-erection of the Admiral - or rather what's left of him after he went up. I understand his head exists still, as it were, in some warehouse or whatever. As it stands - or will stand - I would give a qualified imprimatur to the new monument. I am tempted, however, to dub it "The Pointless Up-to-a-Point Pointer" and I do think I have a point in suggesting that Nelson's head should be enthroned on the cone.
While some up-lookers may fall head over heels in love with the "spike", I fear that it may occasion neck cricks or spells of dire dizziness for some folk and that some onlookers who cannot see eye to eye with this minus-room-with-a-view-or-loo conical construction will be content with a bird's eye survey of the city at the drop of a hat from a helicopter, aeroplane or balloon.
Perhaps a less crazy and more admirable suggestion might be to have the good admiral zoned by the Dublin Corpo in full effigy near the cone's base, looking wistfully skyward and contemplating his former pedestalled glory. Whatever the outcome may be, the new erection will be only a pinpoint compared with the Great Wall of China - the only manmade structure visible from outer space.
Anyway, I trust that Nelson's head doesn't turn in its wherever-it-is resting place when his successor is erected and proves to be a pointed success without having to be blown up out of all proportion by its admirers. - Yours, etc., Fr Pat Deighan,
Laytown, Co Meath.