The Kevin Barry Window

later12

I was in UCD today and thought I'd go see one of the most significant commemorations of an Irish volunteer, the Kevin Barry Memorial Window formerly of Earlsfort Terrace.

I was pretty surprised when my friend showed me where the window was located. Far from occupying any prominent or distinguished position on campus or within the Health Sciences Centre, the window is displayed in what I could only describe as a glass concourse just above the student cafe, facing onto a waste collection area and a bicycle park at the back of the Health Sciences block.

Does this strike anyone as a less than appropriate place to house a historically relevant piece of art which has been described as priceless?

I'm not an advocate of the Irish volunteers, I'm just curious as to why on Earth this pretty humble and withdrawn site was chosen for such an important piece as opposed to somewhere a little more formal or visible?

OneOfThem Stumbled

later12 wrote: »

I was in UCD today and thought I'd go see one of the most significant commemorations of an Easter Rising activist, the Kevin Barry Memorial Window formerly of Earlsfort Terrace.

I was pretty surprised when my friend showed me where the window was located. Far from occupying any prominent or distinguished position on campus or within the Health Sciences Centre, the window is displayed in what I could only describe as a glass concourse just above the student cafe, facing onto a waste collection area and a bicycle park at the back of the Health Sciences block.

Does this strike anyone as a less than appropriate place to house a historically relevant piece of art which has been described as priceless?

I'm not an advocate of the 1916 rising, I'm just curious as to why on Earth this pretty humble and withdrawn site was chosen for such an important piece as opposed to somewhere a little more formal or visible?

Not particularly. Its in a concourse joining Dermatology and Health Science looking onto one of the entrances to UCD, and is over the only open area in the vacinity whereby you can get between from Conway, Health Sci, Comp Sci, etc to the area beyond Health Sci.

The area around Dermatology and the new student centre are both subject to extensive landscape work at the moment however.

My only gripe is how that bridge seems to be so often (if not permanently) locked. :mad:

Mind you I always found the window itself to be... slightly odd.

Powerhouse

later12 wrote: »

I'm not c, I'm just curious as to why on Earth this pretty humble and withdrawn site was chosen for such an important piece as opposed to somewhere a little more formal or visible?

Maybe the person who chose the location was not 'an advocate of the 1916 rising' either and didn't want to be promoting such terrorists too visibly in preserving the University's history?

Caiseoipe19

later12 wrote: »

I was in UCD today and thought I'd go see one of the most significant commemorations of an Easter Rising activist, the Kevin Barry Memorial Window formerly of Earlsfort Terrace.

I was pretty surprised when my friend showed me where the window was located. Far from occupying any prominent or distinguished position on campus or within the Health Sciences Centre, the window is displayed in what I could only describe as a glass concourse just above the student cafe, facing onto a waste collection area and a bicycle park at the back of the Health Sciences block.

Does this strike anyone as a less than appropriate place to house a historically relevant piece of art which has been described as priceless?

I'm not an advocate of the 1916 rising, I'm just curious as to why on Earth this pretty humble and withdrawn site was chosen for such an important piece as opposed to somewhere a little more formal or visible?

He wasn't involved in the 1916 Rising.
And God forbid someone mistake you for actually supporting people that died fighting for the freedom of this country...we couldn't have that.

later12

Cygnus wrote: »

He wasn't involved in the 1916 Rising.

I just noticed that too, my mistake.

And God forbid someone mistake you for actually supporting people that died fighting for the freedom of this country...we couldn't have that.

This is not about the politics of whether or not Barry's contemporaries were free or not. In the same way that atheists can appreciate Christian renaissance art, those of us who disagree with Barry's politics can appreciate a piece of art treating an important period in Irish history.

OneOfThem Stumbled wrote: »

Not particularly. Its in a concourse joining Dermatology and Health Science looking onto one of the entrances to UCD, and is over the only open area in the vacinity whereby you can get between from Conway, Health Sci, Comp Sci, etc to the area beyond Health Sci.

The area around Dermatology and the new student centre are both subject to extensive landscape work at the moment however.

My only gripe is how that bridge seems to be so often (if not permanently) locked. :mad:

Mind you I always found the window itself to be... slightly odd.

Yes... the bridge is apparently always locked (not sure if that is going to change) which makes the site for the window all the more bizarre.

Given the interior architecture of the Health Sciences building, with lots of glass surfaces & open floor levels, it's pretty difficult to appreciate why a more suitable location was not chosen in that building which would allow this piece of art to be more publicly visible. Or if they were really keen in having it in a public location at the back of Health Science, why not install it in the Health Sciences Library overlooking the water feature where it would have enjoyed a prominent location for library users and the public?

Apparently the window cost €250,000 to move and restore after it was taken out of Earlsfort Terrace... all of that money to literally place it right at the back of the UCD campus in a locked concourse overlooking a bicycle park! The landscaping that is going on (?) or has already finished there is pretty basic and unremarkable. It was just a really strange choice for something that was so well known as a piece of art and (I hate to labour the point but) cost so much to install.

Raphael

The reason it's over in that area is because

A) Kevin Barry was a medicine student in UCD
The Charles institute (the big locked middle building it's in) has the open space and light to accommodate it well, which no other building on campus really can without installing it in a wall.
C) Also, the Charles is a brand new building, and anyway they can get it in the papers they will.

GoldenTickets

That window was lit well enough when it was in Earlsfort Terrace, I've never understood why the powers jokers that be in UCD couldn't just leave it where it was. It was originally installed in Earlsfort Terrace, so that's where it belongs.

Generally fixtures like windows aren't fair game for pilfering when you're moving out of a building and moving artifacts like that from their original location is frowned upon by most historians.

But God forbid anyone else might have UCD's window, better off wasting budget money removing it and squirreling it away in a poorly-constructed building which is already ageing badly, where nobody will ever bother going to see it and where it has no historical context whatsoever.

Well done lads, I'm sure the medical students who coughed up to have it installed originally would be delighted with your handiwork.

later12

Raphael wrote: »

The reason it's over in that area is because

A) Kevin Barry was a medicine student in UCD
The Charles institute (the big locked middle building it's in) has the open space and light to accommodate it well, which no other building on campus really can without installing it in a wall.
C) Also, the Charles is a brand new building, and anyway they can get it in the papers they will.

(A) is debatable grounds for having moved the window as GoldenTickets said, but lets leave that aside; my problem isn't necessarily the fact that the window is associated with Health Sciences. If it must be on located the UCD campus, Health Sciences is a reasonable place to display it in light of an historical link.

But the Charles institute does not contain the only well lit space in Health Sciences. It is a tremendously cleverly and well lit building with large open spaces and an enormous library built largely out of a glass exterior. And, quite importantly, Health Sciences is not always locked unlike the Charles Institute, and is very accessible.

Does this really make sense to anyone?

Raphael

Nah, I think it's a bit nuts as well. Never realised it was historically significant before seeing this post, just thought it was something they'd commissioned - truth be told I walk past it twice a day and never gave it a second glance.

It's possible the reason they put it in Charles rather than the Health Sciences building proper was because they would have needed to an amount of remodelling to put it somewhere there (I'll admit I don;t know the Health Sciences building as well)

It's also possible that they got some of the money for the relocation from the funds for building the Charles, and had to put it in their as a result. In which case it's something that would have been seen as the best of two bad options.

Or, as said, they wanted another excuse to get some photos of politicians standing around in their shiny new building, and ahve a nice impressive piece for anyone else they're showing around it.