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VISITORS TO GLASNEVIN Cemetery will now able to climb to the top of the O’Connell Tower for the first time in more than 40 years after it was closed following its bombing in 1971.
The tower will be open to visitors from tomorrow after restoration work by the Office of Public Works. A new staircase needed to be built after the tower was bombed by Loyalist paramilitaries in response to the destruction of Nelson’s Pillar on O’Connell Street.
The bomb exploded at its base, destroying the tower’s staircase and windows. A large crack through its base that can still be seen today.
Renovations began in 2016, and visitors can now climb a newly installed staircase to the top of the tower, where the 360-degree view reveals Meath, Dublin, Wicklow and the Irish Sea. As Glasnevin already lies 100ft above sea level, the views will over a panorama that hasn’t been seen in decades.
Daniel O’Connell
The tower was built in 1855 to honour Irish political leader Daniel O’Connell, and took hundreds of labourers 16 months to complete. O’Connell, often referred to as ‘The Liberator,’ campaigned for the rights of Catholics in 19th-century Ireland and for the country’s independence. Before his death, he requested that his heart be taken to Rome and the rest of his body buried in Glasnevin Cemetary.
O’Connell founded Glasnevin Cemetery, which now encompasses 124 acres and has 1.5 million people buried on its grounds, in 1832 as a place where people from all creeds could be buried. Extensive restoration work of O’Connell’s crypt, which is underneath the tower, took place before it reopened in 2009.
The opening of the tower’s winding wooden staircase will allow visitors to experience “the full magnificence of this mausoleum,” John Green, Chairman of the Glasnevin Trust, said.
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.”
The tower measures 155 metres from its foundation to the apex of the cross on its top.
Today’s reopening was marked by a time capsule placed at the bottom of the tower by students at the local O’Connell School.
Access to the tower is by ticket only. Tickets go on sale from today, and tours of the tower start tomorrow. Initially, tours will run between 1pm and 3pm. Tours will begin every ten minutes, with six to eight visitors per tour. These times will be extended after a trial period.
More information can be found on Glasnevin Trust’s website.
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*bombed by loyalist terrorists, fixed that bit for you.
@Mr Phil Officer: *bombed by UK-sponsored terrorists, fixed that bit for you.
@Dublin Joe: Loyalist terrorist attack targeted heritage sites like ISIS, now there’s a fitting headline.
@Mr Phil Officer: Tower of the royalist O’Connell. bombed by royalists. fact headline.
@Sean Conway: Sycophantic West Brits should study what the crown did to the once loyal royalists and the Old English before them and the Ascendancy after them, idolising a master who despised them didn’t work out to well.
@Sean Conway: Hopefully someone fixes you too
@Mr Phil Officer: O’connell was no friend of the workingclass. he always sided with the privileged. read what James Connolly said about him.
@Sean Conway: has there ever been a friend to the working class, it has been a bloody road to attain the rights workers enjoy today.
@Mr Phil Officer: you mean like when republican terrorists burnt 275 of our stately homes to the ground . A act of vandalism against our country .
@Tommy Whelan: sectarian violence is used to divide and rule he lower classes.
‘I can hire one half of the workingclass to kill the other half’. -Jay Gould.
@Tommy Whelan: Your right Tommy, it’s a pity they had to go, if Devs men had have had the CAB in them days they could have seized these administrative buildings of foreign landlords.
@Mr Phil Officer: CAB was setup by an fg government Mr Phil.
@Dublin Joe: bombed by misguided Irish people (Protestants) during a civil war. Fixed that bit for you.
@Donal Hogan: they did set it up, a model adopted by law enforcement agencies across the world, probably the best thing FG have ever done.
@Tommy Whelan: ‘Our state homes’! 257, living in up when the famine Was raging.
I didn’t realise it was closed. I must pay a visit some day and do the full tour.
@Johnny Bellew:
Irish media calling these people “paramilitaries”, the ghost of pro-british collaboration, censorship and bias lives on.
@Johnny Bellew: Glasnevin tour is brilliant and the guides are very engaging. Can’t reccommend it highly enough.
@T Beckett is back: Would that be the same ‘pro-british collaboration, censorship and bias’ which ommitted to mention that the bombing of the tower was carried out in retaliation for the bombing of Nelson’s Pillar?
@Harry Whitehead: they were not very good @ retaliation considering it was 5 years later & I never heard loyalist paramilitaries who were that interested in Dublin
Liberty Hall is 59 metres and you say the tower is 155 metres?
Obviously, basic maths is not required to be a journalist.
@Bat Daly: Divide by 3
@Bat Daly: the tower was 155metres high but Dublin city council had it reduced in height to protect the city’s historic skyline
@Bat Daly: According to some more professional internet publications it’s 55 meters tall.
@Bat Daly: it is 55m high. There is a typo. It’s a brilliant view from up there.
155 metre really …
@Bobby Neary: Eh………………that’s a bit tall!!
@Bobby Neary: more like feet and it’d still be impressive
@Bobby Neary: more like feet and it’d still be impressive
@Gerry Ryan: I just checked, It is 55 metres tall according to other articles on the net.
@Pearse Mc Mullen: Probably meant 155 metres above sea level
Got to love the logic of the Loyalists. “They blew up monument to a military man who waged war to further the colonial power of his country, lets retaliate by blowing up a monument to a states man who fought for civil rights and freedom of his people through non violent means”
Liberty hall also bombed by so-called loyalists in 72 in collusion with MI5, barely hear a peep about these arocities considering who sponsors them.
Cases closed with no answers very quickly , while the Brits just bet confessions out of any old paddy
I never forget how blaise i was watching one million dubliners documentary and the shock and sadness of the finale.
Nelson pillar was on foreign ground so every right to blow it up, but those loyalist brain dead to come here to graveyard and blow up a national monument, well speaks for itself don’t it….
@Declan Bowe: Nelson pillar was paid for and rejected by the people of Dublin . Nelson was a defender of Ireland that defeated the French fleet at the battle of Trafalgar and remove the threat of a French invasion of Ireland by Napoleon .
@Tommy Whelan: erected by the people of Dublin .
@Declan Bowe:
You got off lightly. What the Republic suffered from loyalist paramilitary violence pales into insignificance when you consider the devastion and misery wreaked upon the North by both Republican and Loyalist thugs.
It’s shocking that it took the State over 40 years to re-open this iconic and hugely important O’Connell monument and mausoleum. In America, it would never take them this long to re-open vital monuments to their country’s patriots.
However, it is great news that the tower has finally been re-opened to the Irish and international public.
Bombed by British trained and funded Loyalists Murderers.
Of course our Irish media and Quisling Politicians wouldn’t admit the truth about about this and many other acts of savagery carried out in 26Counties by British sponsored Thugs to which they turned a blind eye indeed blaming Republicans as they did after Dublin / Monaghan bombings!
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