Dublin's New Monument: Honoring Irish Women

0:00On April 5th, Dublin City Council just greenlit a major monument on O'Connell Street to celebrate Irish women from the revolutionary era. This covers everything from the early 1900s suffrage fight. The 1913 Dublin Lockout, the 1916 Easter Rising, the War of Independence and the Civil War. It'll go up right between the Spire and the James Larkin statue, smack in front of the GPOA Prime Spot to honor their legacy. The project's got a 1 million euro budget and they're expecting fierce competition from artists submitting designs. Council Chair Donna Cooney calls it super exciting, especially since O'Connell Street has zero statues of real women right now and Dublin's short on. Dem overall. Cooney points out that only 20% of the city's plaques remember women, and they're often overlooked in history books, parks and streets. This monument aims to fix that gap, shining light on unsung heroines who shape Ireland. One last hurdle, they need the Lewis operators okay to make sure it won't mess with tram services.

1:02But with full council backing, Cooney hopes to see it standing in 18 months, leaving the exact form open for artists, maybe names etched in. Maybe a collective tribute decided by experts. It's a step toward balancing the scales on those historic streets sparked in part by Cooney's own family tie her great-grande Elizabeth O'Farrow. Carried the surrender flag in the rising, change like this keeps the real stories flowing.