Victoria’s Irish Secret

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A monument to Queen Victoria by John Hughes RHA, unveiled outside Leinster House in 1908.

Removed in 1948, ostensibly to provide parking for cars…

…and taken to the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, an unofficial dumping ground/storage depot for politically incorrect government sculptures.

Photographed by Patrick Healy at the hospital (above) in 1971, Victoria languished unloved and unkempt until…

…the mid-1980s when she was shipped to Australia, tidied up and placed outside the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney (above).

The rest of the monument, including statues of Erin, remain in the grounds of Leinster House (above) and Dublin Castle.

More information here.

Victoria outside Leinster House pic via National Library
Patrick Healy pic via South Dublin Public Library archive
Leinster House pics by Aaron McAllorum

Thanks Sibling of Daedalus

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