Mary Rose: O'Donnell Street?

O’Donnell Street? Connelly Street? O’Connell Street…yes that’s the one. I have heard Dublin’s main thoroughfare referred to under so many different names, you’d think there isn’t one map of Dublin in print. However, the many maps of Dublin I have consulted while getting lost in the vicinity all display O’Connell Street at the center of this fair city. It has also been the political backdrop for the 1913 Dublin Lockout, the 1916 Easter Rising, the Irish Civil War in 1922, and the destruction of the Nelson Pillar in 1966.
Perhaps the street befits its name, commemorating Daniel O’Connell – a champion for Catholic Emancipation in the early 1800’s; Catholics being denied the right to take seats in Parliament, among many other things. His innovative non-violent methods earned Catholics more rights, however those methods also contributed to his downfall after he called off a ‘Monster Meeting’ to repeal the Act of Union because of pressure from the authorities. However, the end of O’Connell’s political career did not change his heroic status, being often referred to as ‘The Liberator.’ And O’Connell Street, being renamed in 1924 by the Dublin Corporation from Sackville Street to its present day title, is not the only thing bearing his namesake. There is a monument to Daniel O’Connell on his aptly named street sculpted by John Henry Foley, and unveiled in 1882. Connecting O’Connell Street to the southern part of Dublin is O’Connell Bridge. There are also several other O’Connell Streets in different counties throughout Ireland.
Though today O’Connell Street is known for cheap fashions, and the Spire of Dublin – as ugly as it is tall (it stands 393 feet by the way), it is also a symbol of Irish freedom; that freedom being as intrinsic to the people as O’Connell Street is to Dublin.




Pictured above is a view of O'Connell Street, and below is the Daniel O'Connell Monument.