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Plaques

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  • 21-11-2006 12:17pm
    #1
    luckat
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,366 ✭✭✭


    Compared to other countries, Ireland seems to have very few plaques commemorating historical events.

    And when there *are* plaques, they're often inaccurate. I was looking at the plaque in Talbot Street yesterday, marking where Sean Treacy died in a gun-battle with British forces. It calls him Sean 'Tracey'.

    I don't think there are plaques on the homes of the signatories of the Proclamation, or on the sites of many of the battles for independence, not even to mention the homes of great writers.


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    #2
    PHB
    Registered Users Posts: 20,617 ✭✭✭✭PHB


    It's mostly because of the IRA, and the fear of embracing Irish nationalism without been seen as supporting the actions of the IRA in the North. Personally, it bugs the hell out of me.


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    #3
    wow sierra
    Registered Users Posts: 1,085 ✭✭✭wow sierra


    Yeah - that seems to be the problem. Had great fun driving round the byroads of Cork looking for Kilmichael - (brilliant monument when you do find it ) and Béal na Blath- not a signpost to be found.Even when you get to Béal na Blath its not signposted which direction the monument is. Thought at the time that maybe they werent being publicised for political reasons. Mind you asking directions a load of times added to the experience.


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    #4
    luckat
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,366 ✭✭✭luckat


    I think Beal na Blath has changed since the days of the ambush, by the way - the road used to be horseshoe-shaped at the time of the ambush, and has been rebuilt.


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    #5
    muesli_offire
    Closed Accounts Posts: 152 ✭✭muesli_offire


    Sorry, thought the thread was 'plagues'. Plaques are interesting aswell though.


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    #6
    Mick86
    Closed Accounts Posts: 982 ✭✭✭Mick86


    wow sierra wrote:
    Yeah - that seems to be the problem. Had great fun driving round the byroads of Cork looking for Kilmichael - (brilliant monument when you do find it ) and Béal na Blath- not a signpost to be found.Even when you get to Béal na Blath its not signposted which direction the monument is. Thought at the time that maybe they werent being publicised for political reasons. Mind you asking directions a load of times added to the experience.

    Why didn't you buy an ordnance survey map? Sheet 86 I think. For a wonder Kilmichael is excellent. The positions of Barry's men are marked and the whole ambush can be "read".
    luckat wrote:
    I think Beal na Blath has changed since the days of the ambush, by the way - the road used to be horseshoe-shaped at the time of the ambush, and has been rebuilt.

    The county council took the bend out of the road in the 1960s. At the same time they removed the container from the roadway in which the ambush party had placed the dynamite for their mine.


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    #7
    walrusgumble
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,062 ✭✭✭walrusgumble


    am just after coping a plaque outside a pub in moore st or thomas street in dublin, think it was thomas street, anyway its the place where pearse and co went to after the gpo burned down and decided to surrender.

    i swore i saw another plaque around dublin with the proclamation (fine piece in relation to equality for all men women and children etc.. pitty our laws dont do this in practice)

    i agree with your comments as to why more are not displayed to like it or not (ie conor cruise o'brien and others in the irish times and indo who bemoned at how we got independence in their articles easter past) this is our history and this is how our country formed, many of us our proud how it happened, this does not mean me or people like me follow todays ira/sein fein propaganda etc. i for one would like to see more of these plagues.

    incidently i remember going to kilmainham jail and surprise to see pearse's grave is only marked by a lousy cross, it wouldnt hurt the office of works to supply a decent marble headstone, regardless of what historians think of him, he unselflessly gave his life to the cause and tried to establish and resurect the language in his school st enda's and through gaelic league.

    considering dublins involvement with the irish q walking the streets is like a museum ie places of interest, the names of streets, eg o'connell st involve in 1913 lock out and 1916 etc you know the rest.

    i am all for intergration and embracing other nationalities but i would also like to see that we do not look our sense of irishness and ensure that future irish men and women remember how ireland got its freedom. plaques will not do this bu it would be nice to commerate the people just like london does with all their military hereos.if you go to derry there is a really nice bronze sculture for ww1 and ww2 vetrans from derry who died for gb, does this offend the dominate nationalist majority in the bogside region?

    incidently, if people owned a certain building for business/residential, and they had proof that it was once a building used or birthplace of a certain irish figure of the past, could they seek planning permission or whatever is neccessary and display a plague at their own expenses?


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    #8
    brianthebard
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,165 ✭✭✭✭brianthebard


    OP don't mean to be rude but if you aren't seeing many plaques you might not be looking hard enough, or more likely they are part of the scenery to you and you see them but it doesn't register. There are thousands of them all around the country and in just about every sizeable town.


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    #9
    walrusgumble
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,062 ✭✭✭walrusgumble


    i think you are right, i suppose. i heard thomas clarke's old tobaco shop, (one of places procamation was signed not sure) not sure buiding still there, had a very small plaque over the door. and in centre of my town there is a big statue dedicated to town folk who died in 1916-1922 (pro treaty men of course)

    in a village called glenamaddy co galway there is a pague dedicating to a former ric man who risked his life when he left it just after 1916 rising.

    where else in dublin are there plaques, bar obvious places of cemmoration like garden of rememberance and museums and statutes in o'connell st or bridge named after leaders?just curosity.


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    #10
    Mick86
    Closed Accounts Posts: 982 ✭✭✭Mick86


    http://www.irishwarmemorials.ie/


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    #11
    GreenHell
    Registered Users Posts: 2,621 ✭✭✭GreenHell


    wow sierra wrote:
    Yeah - that seems to be the problem. Had great fun driving round the byroads of Cork looking for Kilmichael - (brilliant monument when you do find it ) and Béal na Blath- not a signpost to be found.Even when you get to Béal na Blath its not signposted which direction the monument is. Thought at the time that maybe they werent being publicised for political reasons. Mind you asking directions a load of times added to the experience.

    I've met quiet a few people rambling around west cork looking for Béal na Blath, it is actually sign posted from a few locations, but its not heavily advestised. Kilmichael on the other hand is not sign posted, dispite their being a large enough monument on location. There are quiet a number of smaller plagues around the place as well dedicated to volunteers from the war of independence, more so than other parts of the country I've been too.


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