The Parnell Monument is a monument to Irish nationalist politician Charles Stewart Parnell (1846–1891), located at the northern end of O'Connell Street in Dublin, Ireland.
Designed by Irish-American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens (statue) and American architect Henry Bacon (obelisk), the monument took more than a decade to complete, and was the last public monument Saint-Gaudens saw to completion before his death. It consists of a bronze statue of Parnell set against a large granite obelisk, whose south-facing side bears a gilt inscription of one of his quotations as well as a harp. It was unveiled on 1 October 1911, twenty years after Parnell's death.
According to the O'Connell Street Monument Report, the monument "now stands in answer to the O'Connell Statue at the south end and terminates the parade of nationalist statues on the primary thoroughfare of the capital." The monument is within the O'Connell Street Architectural Conservation Area.
History 1895 Great Sugar Loaf memorial Following Parnell's death in 1891, a campaign was initiated to establish a permanent monument commemorating his political career and his contribution to the Irish nationalist cause. However, prior to the drive to create a Dublin memorial to Parnell, there were plans for a separate monument to be erected on the summit of the Great Sugar Loaf in County Wicklow. On 10 November 1895, a "large, representative, and enthusiastic public meeting" was held in Kilmacanogue, County Wicklow for the purposes of "forwarding a movement" towards getting the monument started. The meeting was organised by the Independent Nationalists of Bray, Kilmacanogue, Enniskerry and surrounding neighbourhoods.
Gladstone memorial In 1898, shortly before a movement to commemorate Parnell by memorial in Dublin took hold, "another controversy developed" in connection with a proposal to erect a statue of William Gladstone in Dublin, the former-Prime Minister who had recently died. The Trustees of the Gladstone National Memorial Fund, set up in 1898, proposed three monuments, one each for London, Edinburgh and Dublin, but the suggestion was "met with outrage by many in Dublin and newspaper articles drew attention to the inappropriate nature of such a commemoration, particularly when, as yet, there was no statue of Parnell", who was already seven years dead. Dublin Corporation passed a motion that same year stating 'that no statue should be erected in Dublin in honour of any Englishman until at least the Irish people have raised a fitting monument to the memory of Charles Stewart Parnell.'
Dublin memorial The plan for a Parnell Monument in Dublin was initiated by John Redmond MP, who had succeeded Parnell as leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, intended both as a symbolic tribute to the 'uncrowned king of Ireland' and as part of his broader effort to reunite the constitutional nationalist movement under his leadership.
In 1898, the Parnell Committee was founded, being a voluntary body with the aim of funding the monument. The committee was chaired by Lord Mayor of Dublin Daniel Tallon, whilst other members included John Redmond, MP, Count Plunkett, Dr. J. E. Kenny, Thomas Baker (manager of the Irish Independent) and the Hon. Edward Blake, MP. The address of the committee was listed as 39 Upper Sackville Street where the offices of the United Irish League were also recorded, who had also been set up in 1898.
By July 1899, the Roscommon Messenger publicly endorsed the Dublin city location for the monument on behalf of the people of Roscommon, stating: (We) now welcome this monument to raise up in the centre of the Metropolis a perpetual token of the esteem and admiration in which Irishmen hold the immortal leader whose memory shall be cherished deep in the hearts of many generations of his countrymen [..] A generous response is certain to be made from all over the country, and by Irish exiles in every land, to the appeal which will be soon made for the necessary funds to raise up a monument equal to the greatest of those which now adorn the streets of our Capital...
A public meeting was held at the Mansion House in Dublin on 27 July 1899, presided over by Lord Mayor Tallon to consider the "desirability of inaugurating a movement for the erection of a monument in the city commemorative of the great public services" of Parnell. It was first proposed to place the monument on the site of the Thomas Moore statue on College Street, which had been erected in 1857, and which the Committee offered to remove elsewhere at their own expense. Dublin City Council refused to grant the site, however, and instead directed that the monument be more suitably erected on a site nearer to the Rotunda Hospital at the northern end of Sackville Street. In 1881, a Dublin City Improvement Bill had previously proposed moving Nelson's Pillar to the same vacant site, but failed.
Foundation stone On Sunday 8 October 1899, two days after the eighth anniversary of Parnell's death (observed annually as "Ivy Day"), the "climax of the manifestations in honour of Parnell was reached when the central ceremonial of the procession was the laying of the foundation-stone to a monument to the Irish leader, at the head of Dublin's noblest thoroughfare–O'Connell Street." Tickets were issued to VIPs, which read: "Parnell Memorial Demonstration – Admit Bearer to Platform on the occasion of Laying Foundation Stone of Parnell Memorial."
On 9 October 1899, The Irish Times reported that there had been "scenes" at the platform erected for the ceremony, and protests "caused by those who apparently objected to the initiation of the project (a monument to Parnell) before the completion of a memorial to Wolfe Tone" who had died over a century earlier in 1798. The foundation stone of an abortive memorial to Tone had been laid at the Grafton Street corner of St Stephen's Green over a year prior on 15 August 1898 as part of commemorations for the centenary of the 1798 Rebellion.
The ceremony, and its "attendant friction between Parnellites and anti-Parnellites" was described in the newspapers the following day. According to Archive Consultants, in their O'Connell Street Monument Report, the laying of the foundation stone was also not attended as well as it might otherwise have been, owing to the Katharine O'Shea scandal, a woman with whom Parnell had had an extramarital affair: Owing to the split in the party over the O'Shea case, the ceremony for the laying of the foundation stone on 8 October 1899, was marred by a conspicuous absence of most of the Irish Parliamentary Party (I.P.P.), city and county magistrates, as well as Roman Catholic bishops and clergy, proceedings were also marred by heckling from extreme nationalists against Redmond's weak plea for unity. Financial support was going to be hard come by in Ireland and Redmond was forced to tour America with a representative of the Parnell monument committee to raise funds.
Although the foundation stone was laid, the sculptor for the intended Parnell statue had yet to be decided or commissioned.
USA fundraising tour On 11 October 1899, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, his secretary Mr Thomas Kennedy, the Hon Burke Roche MP, and John Redmond MP, left Dublin for the United States of America via steamship from Queenstown, County Cork for the purposes of fundraising. The intended aim was to raise enough money to be able to purchase Avondale House (the late residence of Parnell, including its 200 acres of demesne and grounds), and with the remaining funds to continue construction on a fitting monument to Parnell. The Lord Mayor was obliged, under an old statute of the Irish Parliament, to not remain absent from Dublin for more than two months at a time without forfeiture of office, and so the trip was limited to that time period.
During the course of the tour, the group visited the cities of Portland, Lewiston, Boston, Newton, Quincy, Worcester, Providence, New Haven, New York, Orange, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Albany, Buffalo and Detroit. The Lord Mayor later reported that "At all our meetings we were favoured with the attendance of most prominent citizens and prominent Irishmen, and at our great meeting in Philadelphia we had Governor Stone presiding, while in every city we went to, the Mayor was present or presided."
During the course of the tour, the delegation were received in special audience by President McKinley at the White House, and in the "course of an interesting conversation, the President discussed Irish affairs with a degree of interest and knowledge of facts which we could not have expected from (him) considering his many arduous duties" as explained by Tallon. The group were also entertained by then-Governor Roosevelt at the State Mansion in Albany, New York where "it quite surprised us to notice the scholarly knowledge he had of everything Irish and our history generally." Roosevelt had arranged for many prominent persons to meet them there, including the Catholic Bishop of the Diocese, Irish-born Thomas Martin Aloysius Burke.
By late November 1899, the group were in Worcester, Massachusetts, where an "enthusiastic meeting" was held in their honour in the city's Mechanics Hall in aid of the Parnell Memorial Fund. For the occasion, the town had been "brilliantly illuminated", and parades of Cuban veterans (from the recent Spanish–American War), the Emmet Guards and the Hibernian Guards were observed. The event was presided over by Senator Hoar who praised the late Parnell's "coolness, wisdom, capacity and restraint". At the conclusion of the meeting "a large sum was collected", according to the Evening Herald, receiving news updates via cablegram from Boston.
At New York, the Municipal Council conferred on the Lord Mayor of Dublin the freedom of the city, as also happened in Boston. In general, the Irish contingent were "most hospitably entertained" at a variety of social parties across the cities they visited, one of which was hosted in Orange, New Jersey by a Mr Thomas Nevins, formerly of Gorey, who had by then become one of the "leading citizens" of that city. Of the fundraising mission in Orange, The Munster Express wrote: But there is a further purpose in the visit of these distinguished Irishmen to this city and country. It is to revive the waning faith of the friends of Ireland in the Irish cause and to offer them the assurance that through the rift of gloomy clouds that has darkened the Irish political sky for some years past, the bright and scintillating star of hope is beginning to shine that will, at no distant period, guide them to the haven of national independence amid the hills and dales of their native land. The spirit of the illustrious leader (Parnell) should animate their efforts in this direction and inspire them with the same lofty courage and devotion to principle, that inspired and animated him in life.
The newspaper continued: "the gratifying success which has attended the mission will make it possible not only to purchase Avondale, but also to commence the work of the Parnell Monument in O'Connell street, Dublin, at an early date." Redmond was reported as having already put himself in communication with some of the leading American sculptors of the age with the object of securing designs and plans.
The party returned to Ireland aboard the Cunard steamer RMS Campania from New York, arriving at Queenstown, County Cork on the afternoon of Friday 8 December 1899, where they were met by Pat O'Brien MP, "to whom they extended a cordial greeting." The Evening Herald reported from the dockside: