This morning, Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe, TD; Commissioner of the OPW, John McMahon; students from O’Connell School in Glasnevin; and Chairman of Glasnevin Trust John Green officially reopened the O’Connell Tower at Glasnevin Cemetery and Museum. Visitors to Glasnevin Cemetery can now climb the newly installed staircase within the Tower and enjoy a truly unique and spectacular view of Dublin not seen since 1971.
Admission to the tower is a ticketed event only. Tickets go on sale from today, 13th April 2018, and are available on www.glasnevinmuseum.ie. Tours begin tomorrow, 14th April 2018. Initially, tours will run between 1pm-3pm with six – eight visitors per tour which run every ten minutes, so please check the website for times as capacity on each tour is limited. Tour times will be extended following an initial trial period. Booking is essential. *
The reopening of the O’Connell Tower was marked by the laying of a time capsule at the base of the tower by students from the local O’Connell School in Glasnevin. Speeches were also given by Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe, and Chairman of Glasnevin Trust John Green.
In performing this official reopening, Minister for Finance & Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe said:
‘In recent years, Glasnevin Cemetery has become a unique and unmissable Dublin attraction. Developing from a traditional cemetery, and the resting place of more than 1 million people, to the home of the wonderful Museum and Visitor Centre and an exceptionally engaging and entertaining tour, it draws tens of thousands of visitors every year. The restoration of the iconic O’Connell Tower, with a newly installed staircase that promises unparalleled views, adds yet another string to the already fulsome Glasnevin Cemetery bow. It is a privilege to be here today, alongside the students from the local school that takes O’Connell’s name, to see the results of the extraordinary work undertaken by the OPW and the Glasnevin Trust. It is testament to the man we refer to as the Liberator and one of the seminal figures in Irish political life’.
The O’Connell Tower was closed in 1971 when a large bomb exploded at its base. The blast shot up through the tower, destroying its staircase and blowing out its windows. The force was such that it resulted in a large crack that spread up through its granite. This crack can still be seen today.
In partnership with the Office of Public Works (OPW), Glasnevin Trust began work in 2016 to reinstate the staircase and restore the tower. Today Glasnevin Trust is delighted to announce the work has finished and the tower is now open to the public once again.
The newly installed 198 step staircase in the O’Connell Tower is comprised of a wrought iron spiral staircase followed by hand carved wooden steps. The top of the O’Connell Tower provides a 360-degree panorama affording breath-taking views to the north, south, east and west across all of Dublin, Meath, Wicklow and the Irish Sea.
Minister Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran stated:
“I am delighted that this monument is once again accessible to all to see the wonderful vistas of Dublin and surrounding areas, last seen from this vantage point some 50 years ago. The OPW had a significant role to play in the conservation and restoration of this monument to one of Ireland’s greatest political figure, ‘The Liberator’, Daniel O’Connell.
The O’Connell Tower was built in 1855 to commemorate the life of one of Ireland’s greatest political figures, Daniel O’Connell (1775 – 1847). The tower took hundreds of skilled tradesmen and labourers 16 months to complete. The height of the tower from the foundation to the apex of the cross is 180 feet or 55 metres. The cross at the top of the tower is cut from one piece of solid granite and is over 7 feet high.
In 1991 it was decided to open the O’Connell crypt for the first time in 20 years and a programme was put in place to restore it to its former glory. Since then work has been ongoing in the maintenance and restoration of O’Connell’s monument. Completion of the restoration is an achievement in its own right, as the original plans and traditional methods employed by the carpenters and skilled tradesmen who first constructed it were used.
Commenting on the reopening, Chairman of the Glasnevin Trust, John Green said:
“The reinstatement of the stairs in the O’Connell tower will allow us to experience the full magnificence of this mausoleum. Of course, we remember O’Connell through the bridges, streets, and squares named after him, but as we approach the centenary of the founding of our state we must remember how important O’Connell is in our nationhood. O’Connell lit a beacon for the peaceful parliamentary political process, a beacon carried on by Butt, Parnell, Redmond and, perhaps more significantly, every Taoiseach since the end of the civil war. Hopefully the exhibition inside the tower will not only enhance the climb but also help to reinstate Daniel O’Connell to his rightful position in the pantheon of Irish leaders.”
*Ticketing information
Entry to the O’Connell Tower is a ticketed event only. Admission is €12.00 for adults and €9.00 for students (12-16 years), children (8 -12), and seniors. A special family rate of €28.00, which includes 2 adults and 2 children, is also available. Students and children must be accompanied by an adult to access the tower. Due to safety reasons children under the age of eight are not permitted to access the tower. For full terms and conditions, and ticket information please check www.glasnevinmuseum.ie.
The price of the ticket includes access to the O’Connell Tower and its self-guided tour, entry into the exhibitions in Glasnevin Cemetery Museum. Visitors will also receive €5 worth of credit to perform genealogy searches on the cemetery’s extensive records. Visitors can choose to visit the museum before or after their tour of the tower.
Ends
Further information on Daniel O’Connell and the O’Connell Tower.
Daniel O’Connell (1775 – 1847) known as the Liberator, was one of Ireland’s greatest political figures. Born into a Catholic family on 6th August 1775 near Cahirciveen in County Kerry, he was educated in Cork and France and was called to the Irish Bar in May 1798. While in France he witnessed the horror of the French Revolution and developed a lifelong abhorrence of violence for political ends.
In 1823 he founded the Catholic Association and in 1828 O’Connell stood in a by-election in County Clare. He won the seat but could not enter parliament as Catholics were still not permitted under Penal Laws. On April 13th 1929 the Catholic Emancipation Bill was passed restoring many basic civil rights such as religious freedom, education and property ownership to Catholics, as well as allowing them to take up a seat in Westminster. In 1832 he founded Glasnevin Cemetery and stated that:
“I do not wish to make it exclusively Catholic for as the Catholics are desirous not to be separated in this life from their brethren of other persuasions neither do they wish to be divided from them in their passage from this to another world. It is intended to be open to the deceased of every sect, where perfect freedom of religious rites might console the living and according to my creed assist the dead”.
In 1840 he founded the Repeal Association which focused on repealing of the Act of Union, which in 1801 had merged the parliaments of Great Britain and Ireland.
In 1847 O’Connell set out on a pilgrimage to Rome. He died en-route in Genoa on May 15th 1847. His dying wish was that his heart be buried in Rome and his body in Glasnevin Cemetery.
In order to build a monument suitable for O’Connell, the Dublin Cemeteries Committee, which administered Glasnevin Cemetery, sought the help of the well-known Irish antiquarian, George Petrie. His design arose from his work preserving and promoting early Irish Christian art and architecture. It comprised of a round tower, a chapel and a Celtic cross. His plans were displayed at the Great Industrial Exhibition of 1853.
Work began on the monument in 1854 and Sir John Power, a member of the Dublin Cemeteries Committee and an old friend of O’Connell, laid its foundation stone on 23rd Sept. The elaborately decorated silver trowel used to lay the foundation stone was made by John Donegan, one of Ireland’s greatest jewellers who is buried in the Old O’Connell Circle in Glasnevin Cemetery. A hole was made in the foundation stone and within it was placed a lead time capsule containing medals, documents and objects relating to O’Connell’s life along with gold and silver coins.
The trowel used to lay the foundation site at the O’Connell tower, currently on loan to the Glasnevin Cemetery museum from the estate of Frank O’Reilly.
“I have been requested Sir, by the Committee to present you with this tower to lay the foundation stone of the monument of your old and attached friend O’Connell… The place where we stand has been selected as the highest ground in the cemetery so that the monument when completed with form its great elevation form one of if not the most conspicuous objects around Dublin. The monument to be erected here will endure for ages as long as the virtues and the name of O’Connell are engraven on the hearts of Irishmen”.
Patrick Costello 23rd Sept 1854
The tower took hundreds of skilled tradesmen and labourers 16 months to complete. The architect was Patrick Byrne (1783 – 1864) who was also responsible for St. Audeons Church and St Pauls Church in Dublin. The contractor responsible for its construction was Patrick Meyers (c. 1810 – 1880). A stone with his name can still be seen within the tower. Both Byrne and Mayers are buried in the garden section of Glasnevin Cemetery.
The foundations for the tower were constructed with limestone from Lucan in County Dublin while granite used to construct the tower itself came from Dalkey in South County Dublin.
The height of the tower from the foundation to the apex of the cross is 180 feet or 55 metres. The cross at the top of the tower is cut from one piece of solid granite and is over 7 feet high. Weighing some 3 tonnes, its hoisting to the top of the tower was a remarkable achievement. The total cost of construction came to £18,000 or the equivalent of €15 million today.
The O’Connell Tower became an attraction for visitors not long after its completion and in the 1860’s the cemetery’s committee noted that the visitor’s book held the names of “persons from every quarter of the globe”. The numerous visits to the cemetery resulted in many souvenirs of the tower being produced by local entrepreneurs, ranging from postcards to teapots. A replica of the Tower was even placed on view at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago as part of a display by Power’s Whiskey Company and the model was made entirely of whiskey bottles.
Some years after the completion of the tower O’Connell’s remains were removed the crypt at its base. In 1868 Earley and Powells, well known church decorators of Dublin, began decorating it. The design of O’Connell’s sarcophagus or altar tomb again took inspiration from George Petrie’s work, and copied examples of ancient Irish ecclesiastical architecture as preserved by him. For example, the cross cut on the top of O’Connell’s sarcophagus is replicated from a monument at Clonmacnoise dating from the ninth or tenth. O’Connell’s remains were moved to the crypt in May 1869.
Originally the decoration of the crypt was more simplistic than what we see today. The extensive decoration of the walls and marble mosaic floor were added in 1907, the work being completed by Robert Mannix of Westmoreland Street.
In 1971 a disaster struck the O’Connell Tower when a large bomb comprising of 10lbs of gelignite with a timing device exploded at the base of the tower. The blast shot up through the tower and blew out its windows. The force was such that it resulted in a large crack that spread up through its granite. This crack can still be seen today. The explosion also smashed the windows of houses opposite the cemetery. Despite this however, the only casualty was one pigeon that had been roosting within the tower. The net result was the unfortunate destruction of the towers staircase and the closure of the tower and crypt to any visitors. Nobody was convicted for the bombing.
In 1991 it was decided to open the O’Connell crypt for the first time in 20 years and a programme was put in place to restore it to its former glory. Since then work has been ongoing in the maintenance and restoration of O’Connell’s monument and culminated in 2016 with the reinstatement of the staircase that once graced the tower. Its completion was an achievement in its own right using the original plans and traditional methods employed by the carpenters and skilled tradesmen who first constructed it.
Glasnevin Trust
Glasnevin Trust is the largest provider of funeral services in Ireland. The Trust is run by an executive management team and governed by the Dublin Cemeteries Committee, a voluntary not-for-profit body originally established by Daniel O’Connell in 1828.
The Trust’s mission today remains as it was handed down from Daniel O’Connell; “to bury people of all religions and none.”
It operates five cemeteries (Dardistown, Glasnevin, Goldenbridge, Newlands Cross and Palmerstown) and two crematoria (Glasnevin and Newlands Cross).
Glasnevin Cemetery
Glasnevin Cemetery was established in 1832 under the direction of Daniel O’Connell. The cemetery encompasses 124 acres and 1.5 million burials. Glasnevin has major national heritage, through the social and historical history of the people buried there from all walks of life over 178 years.
Glasnevin Museum
The multi-award winning Glasnevin Museum, operated by Glasnevin Trust, was opened in April 2010. The self-funded €11 million museum showcases the social, historical, political and artistic development of modern Ireland through the lives of the 1.5 million people buried in Glasnevin Cemetery – Ireland’s national necropolis.
The three storey museum hosts three main feature exhibits and a restaurant:
- The City of the Dead – an immersive exhibition in the basement of the museum. It covers the burial practices and religious beliefs, as well as the meticulous record-keeping, of the 1.5 million people buried in Glasnevin.
- The Milestone Gallery houses a succession of special exhibitions on key historical figures, starting with Glasnevin’s founder Daniel O’Connell. It also houses ‘the Timeline’ – a 10 metre long digitally interactive table containing details of the lives and relationships of hundreds of the most famous people buried there.
- The glazed Prospect Gallery offers periodic historical exhibitions over a panoramic view of the cemetery, along with information on its marvellous array of funerary monuments and historic graves.
- A 70 seat restaurant: