Sir, – On a recent blustery morning, a large contingent of Mallow people and friends paraded through the grounds of Trinity College Dublin to honour one of the college’s most illustrious alumni, Thomas Davis. The occasion was the launching of a commemorative stamp by An Post.
Marching through the main gates on to one of the busiest junctions in Dublin they processed to the Davis monument on College Green to lay memorial wreaths to commemorate the bicentenary of their fellow townsman.
The event recalled another time in September 1945 when tens of thousands attended a full week of commemoration events to Davis and the Young Irelanders. President Seán T Ó Ceallaigh dedicated the site at College Green on which a monument would be erected to honour this 19th-century hero who preached a gospel of multicultural respect and Irish nationality. In the early 1960s, one of Ireland's foremost sculptors, Edward Delaney, was commissioned to create the long awaited monument. The sculpture was not without its critics, a Dublin Opinion cartoon declared "sixpence to see its inner beauty", the same price as a trip to the top of Nelson's Pillar before it was blown to oblivion.
Pranksters occasionally embellished the fountain in front of the monument with soap powder, a tradition that continues to this day.
But Davis stands magnanimous above it all. He believed that the purpose of politics was to work for all the people and not just the privileged few. He was a nation-builder whose enduring legacy was to articulate the ideals and ambitions of our country.
The town of Mallow is immensely proud of its connection. – Yours, etc,
AIDEEN CARROLL,
Dublin 6.