A Scene Unique – Eyre Square – 1922

Skibbereen Eagle 3rd June, 1922 p.2 (abridged)

A scene, unique in the history of Galway, was witnessed at Eyre Square on Thursday night, 25th inst, when Messrs Stephen J. Cremin, Secretary of the local Transport Workers, and W. J. Larkin, Dublin, headed some hundreds of town tenants, with a fife and drum band, who tore the bronze statue of Lord Dunkellin from its pedestal, and marched in triumph with it to Nimmos Pier, a mile distant. Here, amidst the shouts of the crowd, it was thrown into the sea. On Friday, apparently to prevent its recovery, it was taken up on the beach, and the arms and legs sawn off.

Lord Dunkellin, who was one of the Clanricarde family, and a Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army, was born in 1827 and died in 1873. He was M.P. for Galway City and County and the bronze statue, one of John Henry Foley’s works, was erected in 1873 by public subscription.
Flowers and the railings in the square were injured during the removal of the statue.

At subsequent meetings the Labour leaders declared that they would root out the slums of Galway and rename the Square after the late Father Griffin.