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THE SHELBOURNE HAS reinstated four statues previously removed from outside the Dublin city centre hotel earlier this year.
The four bronze statues were cleaned up and restored to their plinths following a five-month absence.
The statues – which were commonly understood to depict two Egyptian princesses and two Nubian slaves holding torches – were removed from outside the historic hotel on 27 July as the Black Lives Matter movement gathered momentum around the world.
Historian Kyle Leyden argued at the time that based on his research looking at the trade catalogues the statues were ordered from, the statues were not intended to represent slaves.
The lecturer in the history of art and architecture at the University of London said that manacles on the ankles of the statues were probably meant to be bangles, and that all four statues are wearing these bangles.
An ‘Egyptomania’ had been sweeping Europe in the early 19th Century, and these statues were ordered as part of that movement, Leyden added.
The first reference to the statues as being slaves came from a ‘novelesque’ depiction of the hotel: The Shelbourne by Elizabeth Bowen written in 1951.
Owners Kennedy Wilson said the statues were reinstated last night following a report to “fully understand the provenance of the statues and place them within proper context”.
Professional restoration work was carried out on the four statues prior to reinstallation, as recommended in the expert report carried out by Paula Murphy, associate professor at University College Dublin.
Management added that all works were carried out in line with statutory consent received from Dublin City Council.
The council said it will carry out an inspection at the premises in due course “to ensure that any reinstatement carried out is to the satisfaction of Dublin City Council”.
Opened in 1824, the Shelbourne has 265 bedrooms including 19 suites. Its rooms and facade underwent a multimillion-euro restoration that was completed in 2017.
The five-star hotel is owned by US investment firm Kennedy Wilson, which acquired the property in 2014 for over $150 million.
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The vultures will snap that up and build private dwellings for those who need to live next door to work. They will hardly build social flats for the local scangers unless of course DCC decide not to take the set aside money and insist they get built.
@Gareth Cooney: they can no longer buy out the social housing requirement. The dock lands already has some social housing as part of what was built.
@Gareth Cooney: Where’s me bleedin free house ?
@Gareth Cooney:
Imagine two hard working young people breaking their back to save for a deposit and secure a 35 year mortgage to buy a 2 bed apartment here for €600k. Then Jacinta and her 3 delights (who seem to like jumping into the liffey for some reason) are handed the exact same apartment next door in the same building, for life and effectively for free. Socail justice my backside, that to me is the very definition of social injustice. Ordinary workers and taxpayers have got to wake up, we are being totally shafted by a certain class of people.
@Fred Jonsen:
That’s all well and good Fred, it makes you feel better that people are excluded for whatever reason. It’s a very easy position to take, and feel fairly justified. But the conclusion of it is areas where all poor people are living in the same area, where crime becomes rampant, drugs endemic and prospects diminished. Now this may not bother you, but when the crime seeps from that area to your area you will complain about why nothing is done about it. In Helsinki there are no “rough” areas. East Helsinki is considered the worst part, but by our standards it’s middle class. They manage this by mixing people in all areas of all levels of wealth. Crime is very low, Helsinki is an incredibly safe city. Long term planning leads to lasting results, beyond our personal bias.
@Fred Jonsen: You have a very sick mind. You deserve your nightmares.
@Fred Johnson – Trying to build up a resentment towards the working class who get a social house. You should sent that resentment to the government who are welcoming all these real estate funds in order to inflate the price of houses so ordinary people pay massive prices with massive mortgages. I thought the reason for all this crazy ‘housing crisis’ is the c.2000 homeless families so why are we all paying crazy prices for houses. Excus the pun. Nothing to do with ‘Demand/Supply’
@Gareth Cooney: wow the utter cheek of them wanting to live near work where they spend most of their lives funding the other half through high taxation.
@John Smith: absolutely agree, no one should be given a 500k plus apartment on social. Social housing should be built for people who need it, it can be in the sam area but not the same size and spec, it should be basic not luxurious
@David Cullen: Yeah, you are right. Basic. 5×10′s for all those bottom feeders. No windows. Outdoor toilet. These people have no business expecting running water and ‘lectricty. Who do they think they are? They shouldn’t be allowed to send their kids to school either. Back to the Victorian Age is where they need to go.
@Fred Jonsen: Who is Jacinta?
Not tall enough and there should be zero social housing. It’s bonkers to have them in the Docklands!
@Fred Jonsen: It is bonkers that you believe your own bullshit.
With the cost of land so high building tall is the only thing that makes sense! I’ll be surprised if it exceeds 6 storeys though
@Toomasu Sumitsu: Sox stories, are you mad? This is not New York.
@Toomasu Sumitsu: With anything that is higher than 6 floors with another setback taking a good 1-2 years or more in additional time in planning applications and appeals it’s not surprising that many developers aren’t even trying for more than 6-7 storeys anymore, even in the areas where area planning specifications allow for much higher buildings.
will they ever learn
There should be no need for apartments outside of city centres. Clearly this is city centre. Developers should be forced to build proper houses. People cant live in a house if you dont have space to store a bicycle – And im not talking about putting it in a balcony.
@Whoswho: Apartments themselves aren’t the problem. It’s the way that they are designed and facilitated. Storage for apartments should be caterered for buy building it into basement levels or roof levels.
@Whoswho: thats not true at all. what like two storey suburban houses? are you for real?
@Whoswho: Any of the modern apartment buildings in the docklands have bicycle parking in the basement levels.
The company that gets the original planning permission should no be allowed to sell on the site. The sites just go in price with profits going to the gamblers.
Great opertunity to build 30 + 40 story highrise apartment tastefully built spacous and storage on the roof and basement lifts to all floors and wrap around balconies for all apartments from two to four bedroom if thats the case i want one for cash
The Vultures are rubbing their greedy little hands. More potential tax free profits to be exported.
In the meantime, tent cities spring up all over the place, hubs, grotty hotel rooms, or the whims of landlords are good enough for the plebs.
At that price it will cost 250.000 be4 building costs that’s Ireland 4u
@Sean Callan: €100,000 per apartment land cost if they built the total 450 but yeh still a fair chunk of change.
Going cheap
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