Survey Data
Reg No
22209101
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
Monument
In Use As
Monument
Date
1930 - 1940
Coordinates
209734, 110990
Date Recorded
15/06/2005
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Freestanding memorial to Liam Lynch (1893-1923), erected 1935, in form of a round tower. Tapering rubble sandstone walling, set on base with four bronze wolfhounds set on limestone slabs on rubble sandstone pedestals around it at remove. Corbelled conical stone roof with projecting dressed stone eaves course, and cut stone cross finial. Triangular-headed openings near top, with timber fittings and rubble sandstone block-and-start surrounds and sills. Round-headed carved limestone plaque in blind doorway, with rubble sandstone voussoirs and sill. Square carved limestone plaque to base inserted 1973. Rubble sandstone lectern with limestone slab top and podium to site. Two humpback bridges with continuous rubble sandstone parapet walls to access.
Appraisal
This striking fifty foot tower by Denis Doyle of Clonmel is based on the form of the Irish round tower, a freestanding belltower associated with monastic settlements. Often thought to have provided protection for monks and their valuables from Viking raids, its connotations of strength and resilience would have made it a fitting motif for a monument for Liam Lynch, a leading figure in the War of Independence and Chief-of-Staff of the Anti-Treaty forces in the Civil War. The monument marks the spot where he is thought to have been shot. The sculptor Albert Power prepared plaster casts of Irish wolfhounds which were to be cast in bronze. Due to lack of funds these were never cast and the plaster casts were used for the unveiling in 1935. The bronze wolfhounds, erected 1996, are the work of sculptor Pauline O'Connell. The wolfhound is a motif, famously featured in the myth of Cú Chulainn. The use of iconic imagery is evidence of the growing confidence in Irish culture in the Irish Free State.