We begin here at the top of Dublin's main street, O'Connell Street. The street is named after a very important figure in Irish history - who we will meet later. But first, we start with another important political figure who followed O'Connell.
This is a monument to Charles Stuart Parnell who was a prominent Irish nationalist political leader in the late 19th-century. Parnell was nicknamed the 'the uncrowned king of Ireland' as he was the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party which made Irish issues important within British politics.
Parnell championed the cause of Home Rule, where Ireland could manage its own affairs as part of the United Kingdom.
However, Parnell's political career came to a sudden end when an affair with Kitty O'Shea, the wife of another MP, was exposed in the later 1880s. The portrait here dates from the 1880s.
This monument was unveiled in 1911, and the photograph shows it in 1951. Its construction was overseen by an Irish architect George Patrick Sheridan. The obelisk was designed by American architect Henry Bacon and the bronze statue of Parnell was designed by sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. He moved to the United States from Ireland in 1848, aged just 6 months old.
For the next stop, walk along O’Connell Street in the direction of the GPO building.
Image credits:
Parnell Monument, Dublin, Fáilte Ireland, Dublin City Library and Archive, CC BY-NC-ND
Portrait of Charles Stewart Parnell, Rijksmuseum, Public Domain
