Up flew Nelson!

On 8 March 1966, a powerful explosion destroyed the upper portion of Nelson’s Pillar which was located on Dublin’s O’Connell Street and brought Nelson's statue crashing to the ground amid hundreds of tons of rubble. The incident was remembered in ballad:

      Up went Nelson in old Dublin
Up went Nelson in old Dublin
All along O'Connell Street the stones and rubble flew
As up went Nelson and the pillar too

One early morning in the year of '66 (Hey)
A band of Irish laddies were knocking up some tricks
They thought Horatio Nelson had overstayed a mite
So they helped him on his way with some sticks of gelignite (Woah)

However, as the Irish Newspaper Archive reveals, some 35 years previous there were calls for the removal of the statue. As the Irish Independent reported in 1931:

"I consider Nelson Pillar an obstruction to traffic and to the view of our splendid thoroughfare. It is unfortunate that in the erection of our city monuments the blunder was made of erecting them at the intersection of three or four streets. Now, owing to the development of modern motor traffic, we are obliged to undertake the trouble and expense of transferring or removing these monuments. Seeing that the Nelson Pillar was erected in spite of the wishes of the citizens of Dublin, I suggest that its retention or removal be not subject to the same charge. I suggest that the Corporation take a plebiscite of the adult citizens on the three following: 1) The removal of the Pillar altogether; (2) Its re-erection elsewhere in the city, 3) The replacing of the statue of Nelson by a statue of Christ the King, or St. Patrick, or of a figure representative of Eire.

For more information search the pages of the Irish Newspaper Archive (www.irishnewsarchive.com )