Bullet marks in Dublin

[beboots]

It's amazing the little details of old cities that you can totally walk right by, unknowing and oblivious, if they aren't pointed out to you by someone in the know. 

Take, for instance, O'Connell street in downtown Dublin. In 1916, rebels stood on the steps of the post office, read a proclamation, retreated into he building, and waited for the british to attack them. 

Now, last autumn, when my Irish history prof told us this story, I didn't understand why they went to the post office of all places. Turned out I just hadn't had the right kind of post office in mind. Google image this thing. It's massive. Ostentatious, but impressive.

Also, there was once a statue of Admiral Nelson, the great British naval hero of the Napoleonic wars, standing in front. The rebels took turns trying to shoot off his nose. 

Anyway, the giant pillars in front of the post office have shrapnel and bullet marks all over them. The bronze statue down the street by the bridge also has bullet holes in it - easy to miss unless you know they're there. But then you can't NOT see them! 

Dublin's city hall also has bullet holes, but from the conflicts of the 1920s. This isn't the kind of stuff you see in Edmonton, no matter what the wild west reputation dictates. The Irish are cool.
 

Comments

[floranna.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's so wonderful to see all those small pieces of history. At our National museum's door is still a bullethole from our civil war in 1918, and in the stairs of our natiaonal bank (or whatever it's name is) are still markings from Russian's bombings in 1939.

You truly don't have these sort of things there?

[beboots.livejournal.com]

We don't really have much conflicts within our cities that would result in such bullet holes. ;)

In quebec city, though, there's a cannonball imbedded in a tree in the old city, from the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, when New France was conquered by The English. :3