Silver spike

For more than 150 years, a gigantic phallic monument to Lord Nelson was plopped in the middle of one of the main drags in Dublin. It was erected (sorry) by the Dublin Corporation (city government) to pay homage to the victor at Trafalgar, not so different, actually, from the one in Trafalgar Square in London.

Then, in March 1966, the top of the pillar—Nelson’s statue—was blown up, presumably by members of the IRA kitted out with explosives from their pals in ETA. The remainder of the phallus was subsequently removed as a hazard.

For more than 20 years, Dubliners mulled over what to do with the space, and in 1997 The Corpo opened a design competition to replace the Pillar. The winning design was a 120-meter metallic spike, signifying nothing, really, except that you could build it.

Seriously—it has no meaning.

(Okay, the winning architectural firm called it the Spire of Dublin, and described it as an “elegant and dynamic simplicity bridging art and technology.” Whatever. They alternatively called it the Monument of Light, which makes me think of Albert Speer’s Cathedral of Light, so, no.)

Well, at least it's not a British admiral. Or a Starbucks.

But naturally, as I was walking back to my hotel from 14 Henrietta Street, I noticed it, and I had to shoot some photos.

However—and this comes under the category of “don’t try this at home, kids”—I got a little carried away with trying to capture the entire 120 meters in the shot. As I was concentrating on it—and fighting with the bloody LED screen on my digital P&S camera—I became aware of a quiet, repetitive sound somewhere in the area. Eventually I looked up and realized what the repetitive noise was. (When I got back to my hotel I saw that I’d caught it on camera, but because you can’t see anything in the sunlight on an LED screen, I didn’t realize it at the time.)

And I scooted.

Sorry, LUAS driver. I am a total idiot.