Being an expatriate means seeing your view of your adopted city change. When we stay more than a few months in the same city, we begin to cross the same streets daily, without paying attention to the monuments or buildings that surround us.
The idea for this post came to me last week. When a friend came from France to see me in Dublin, I wanted to tell her about the city, as a perfect tourist guide would have done. Without any difficulty, I made him discover the key places of the capital. But as soon as, faced with a statue, a monument or a building, it was a question of answering the question “And what is that? Why is it there?” well, the guide that I had become evaporated instantly. So I decided to put myself back in the shoes of this tourist that I had been during my first days here, and to take another look at Dublin, looking for an answer to all the questions that would cross my mind. Because, even if I spent almost every day for six months in front of these places, it was finally necessary that I know a minimum of their history.
The Spire or the “very large peak in the middle of the avenue”
This is the place where we meet before any evening. It must be said that this sculpture is quite easy to spot… with its 120 meters in height and its 3 meters in diameter, the Spire dominates O’Connell Street – one of the main arteries of the city. When night falls, the tip of the sculpture lights up, transforming this huge peak into a beacon set in the middle of the city. And, when the wind picks up (it never really dies down in Dublin), its upper part can waver with an amplitude of up to 1.50 metres.
The Spire is quite a disturbing monument, at first glance. By its modernity and its metallic appearance, it does not really blend in with the spirit of the city, and far exceeds the height of the surrounding buildings. But then, why was it built? Simply to replace the old column – Nelson’s Column, destroyed in a 1966 bombing by members of theIRA. To fill the hole left by this destruction, a competition is organized, and more than 200 candidates answer the call, whose only requirement is that of a vertical, modern and elegant construction. It is a company based in London that is designated to draw this huge arrow. In January 2003, the last section of the Spire was installed, to the applause of Dubliners. As for its significance, some see it as a monument pointing to a bright future for the city.
The statue of Molly Malone
Located between the famous Trinity College and the Temple Bar district, the statue of Molly Malone is an emblem of Dublin. Indeed, the name of the monument refers to the heroine of a famous Irish music, unofficial anthem of the country. No one knows if the enigmatic character of Molly Malone – a family name derived from the first names Mary and Margaret – really existed. But legend has it that she is a fishmonger and prostitute who lived in XVIIe century died very young of the consequences of a fever. Inaugurated for Dublin’s millennium in 1988, the statue is also nicknamed “The Tart with the Cart”. June 13 has even been declared “Molly Malone Day”, the date of the death of a certain Mary Malone, in 1699. Made of bronze, the sculpture bears signs of wear at the level of the young woman’s chest. This is the consequence of a legend according to which touching Molly Malone’s breasts brings good luck…
Ha’penny Bridge ou Liffey Bridge
There is the O’Connell Bridge – a large bridge in the center of the city – and then there is also this small white bridge, or rather this footbridge – a stone’s throw from Temple Bar – which bears the name of Ha’ Penny Bridge. It is the place of souvenir selfies of Dublin, but it is also a very important place of passage. In fact, around 30,000 people would cross this structure every day. Built in 1816, it was then the first exclusively pedestrian bridge to connect the two banks of the River Liffey. Its name is inherited from the use which, in the past, was made of it: built to replace the ferries which allowed the crossing of the river, it aimed to establish a toll, by means of turnstiles. Each pedestrian who passed there had to give a coin – a penny: origin of the nickname given to Liffey Bridge.
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Launched in April 2016 and intended for French expatriates and candidates for expatriation, Courrier Expat offers information drawn from the international press on the professional and personal environment of French nationals abroad, on the
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