An Irish Pantheon

Bog

Having spent the afternoon walking around the crypt of the Pantheon in Paris, I got to thinking about a similar mausoleum in Ireland. The idea of having a secular edifice dedicated to housing the remains of a nation's most prominent men and women whose entombment there would only be decided by parliamentary decree greatly interested me. It got me thinking about which figures would be housed in an Irish version.

I would imagine that the likes of Michael Collins and other revolutionary figures would be a shoe-in but I hand it over to the esteemed denizens of After Hours to proffer your suggestions.

But no Stephen Gately. Really.

Social Disorder

Jedward, no need to wait till they die, just entomb them.

galwayrush

Something phallic, to pay homage to all the pricks that made a **** of the country.

epgc3fyqirnbsx

Don't really see it working here tbh.
One reason being that family plots are so popular (for want of a better word)
And also for the fact that it would just cause friction and strife as there could never be a consensus as to who would go in.

I'd imagine it can be contentious enough with the surrender monkeys aswell

Darlughda

Michael Collins, Parnell and Daniel O' Connell have big sites in Glasnevin Cemetery.

Bog

Rose Huge Pound wrote: »

Don't really see it working here tbh.
One reason being that family plots are so popular (for want of a better word)
And also for the fact that it would just cause friction and strife as there could never be a consensus as to who would go in.

I'd imagine it can be contentious enough with the surrender monkeys aswell

Very true. I think there are a lot of debates and national hand wringing over entries to the Pantheon in Paris too, there have been very few in the last 50 years. I could imagine different political sides kicking up a fuss over certain historicla figures here too.

Bog

Darlughda wrote: »

Michael Collins, Parnell and Daniel O' Connell have big sites in Glasnevin Cemetery.

True, but was just imagining one particular memorial building housing all such figures.

King Felix

Rose Huge Pound wrote: »

I'd imagine it can be contentious enough with the surrender monkeys aswell

What/who are the surrender monkeys?

Superbus

King Felix wrote: »

What/who are the surrender monkeys?

You must be one of them.

epgc3fyqirnbsx

Rose Huge Pound wrote: »

Don't really see it working here tbh.
One reason being that family plots are so popular (for want of a better word)
And also for the fact that it would just cause friction and strife as there could never be a consensus as to who would go in.

I'd imagine it can be contentious enough with the surrender monkeys aswell

It looks pretty spectacular in fairness. It just got me thinking to places of burial and when you look back through history the veneration of the dead was huge, from portal dolmens in this country to the pyramids in Egypt.

The last of these grand displays seems to lie with monarchy and clergy. I suppose that in todays modern democracies with equality being one of the greater virtues that such displays are seen as elitist and just cause further divisions which most states will avoid at all cost

epgc3fyqirnbsx

King Felix wrote: »

What/who are the surrender monkeys?

That was just me being a smartass, it's what a lot of people call the french after WW2

sron

French leaders collect the the corpses of the famous like they're trading cards; it perturbs me. Also, God knows who the cretins running this country would nominate. They might even call it Mount Haughey.

onlyrocknroll

Rose Huge Pound wrote: »

That was just me being a smartass, it's what a lot of people call the french after WW2

Here's an article about all those people.

Darlughda

sron wrote: »

French leaders collect the the corpses of the famous like they're trading cards; it perturbs me. Also, God knows who the cretins running this country would nominate. They might even call it Mount Haughey.

Well, this is the reason Bertie has sorted out his plot in Glasnevin, just so he can be remembered with the legendaries of the republican movement. Que'lle surprise.

starbelgrade

Yeah - let's build more stuff that we don't need. We're good at that.

dan719

Part of the attraction of the Pantheon is that it has played quite an important role in the history of Paris and France in general. It's been used as a church, as an arms dump during the revolution, has been redesigned and so on and so forth. That's before you even consider how Voltaire and Rosseau (who despised one another) came to be interred in the same room. What building do we have that would be properly suited?

With regards to who we would fill it with? Well a good few of our leading figures in literature are already chilling out in Montmarte cemetary such as Wilde, and considering the massive prevelence of civil war politics on this island, the odds of universal agreement on anyone political is less than zero.

I'd also note, that the Pantheon has a lot of scientists/nobel prize winners. We've only produced one of those in Physics.

So, in short, it would be a much smaller and crappier version of the French "Home of great men (and madame Curie)".

fontanalis

A road would probably be built through it in the future anywya.

Dravokivich

Leinster Hse... right now...