Survey Data

Reg No

16003247


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Artistic, Historical, Social


Original Use

Monument


In Use As

Monument


Date

1895 - 1905


Coordinates

331852, 193869


Date Recorded

02/09/2010


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Carved limestone monument, foundation stone laid 1899, having marble larger-than-life-size figure set on square-profile limestone plinth on a polished granite base. Marble panels to each face of plinth, with medallions to three faces, high relief sculpture to west face. Carved string courses with guilloche mouldings, inscribed recessed panels to plinth.

Appraisal

Memorial, unveiled 1900, dedicated to Billy Byrne, a local leader of the 1798 rebellion who was tried and executed in Wicklow. Its commissioning and erection mark the growing nationalist sentiment in the country, with the dates on the plinth 1798, 1803, 1848 and 1867 commemorating significant moments in the movement for independence. The panels show Erin, Michael Dwyer, General William J. Holt and William Michael Byrne. A local landmark, the statue, carved in the round, demonstrates the skill of nineteenth-century monumental sculptor and stonecarver, George Smyth of Dublin. Design attributed to Thomas Aloysius Coleman (1865-1950).