O'Connell Street: Encyclopedia II - O'Connell Street - Modern O'Connell Street

O'Connell Street - Modern O'Connell Street

Despite the progess made in improving the street's architectural coherence post-1916 and 1922, poor planning controls in the 1970s and 1980s had a severely negative impact on the street. Like so much of Dublin of that time, property speculators and developers were permitted to construct inappropriate buildings on the thoroughfare, in spite of its Conservation Area status. Fine Victorian and 1920s buildings were demolished in the 1970s including the highly elaborate Gilbey's at the northern end, the Metropole and Capitol cinemas next to the GPO, and even the last surviving Wide Streets Commission buildings on the street dating from the 1780s located on the present day site of a well-known shoe shop at the southern end of the street. Coupled with a neglect of the public domain by the authorities, the emergence of many fast-food joints, gaming arcades, cheap stores and convenience shops, and poor planning controls that enabled plastic signage, PVC windows and inappropriate alterations to buildings to flourish, O'Connell Street became a shadow of its former self as one of the grand thoroughfares of Europe.

After four decades of neglect, the street has being undergoing a form of renaissance of late as part of Dublin City Council's O'Connell Street Integrated Area Plan (IAP) which was unveiled in 1998 with the aim of restoring the street to its former glory. Work to realise the plan was delayed by approximately four years, with work starting on street in 2003. The Plan envisages maintaining the basic plan of O'Connell Street, but with widened pavements double their previous width on each side of the street, a reduction in roadspace to two traffic lanes either side of a slightly narrower central median, the removal of all London Plane trees and the installation of over 200 replacement trees of various species, and a central plaza area near the centre of the street that adequately addresses the GPO and provides a space for public gatherings and national celebrations. The IAP also proposes new street furnishings including custom-designed lampposts, litter bins and retail kiosks, and the replacement structure for the Nelson Pillar, the Spire of Dublin, the world's tallest sculpture, which was erected in January 2003. Since commencement, the works have largely run to schedule, with a completion date of 2006 for the public domain works. As of October 2005, Lower O'Connell Street is almost complete with the Upper end works well under way.

In efforts to protect O'Connell Street from the planning mistakes of the past, the thoroughfare has been designated an Architectural Conservation Area and an Area of Special Planning Control - both of which safeguards strictly govern all aspects of planning and development on the street. In most cases not even comparatively minor alterations can be made to any structure, or any building's use change (such as to fast-food etc) without the planning permission of Dublin City Council. The majority of the buildings on the street are now also Protected Structures.

The street has a number of major monuments, all of which were restored in spring/summer of 2005 as part of the thoroughfare's regeneration programme. Statues include late nineteenth century Irish political leader Charles Stewart Parnell, radical early twentieth century labour leader Jim Larkin and Daniel O'Connell, who was the dominant force in Irish politics from the late 1820s until his death in 1847. One monument in particular, Nelson's Pillar, honouring British Admiral Horatio Nelson, dominated the streetscene, offering an unparalleled viewing platform to which people could climb and see the city. The monument, which stood at the junctions of Henry Street, Talbot Street and Henry Street, was controversially blown up by Irish republicans in March 1966, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Rising. The controversial Spire of Dublin has been erected on the site of the pillar.

Dubliners (who are famous for giving blunt nicknames to monuments) used to nickname the street 'the street of the Three Adulturers' because of the allegations of adultery made against the three principal figures on the street commemorated by statues; Parnell, Nelson and O'Connell. It was also noted humourously that the statue of Charles Stewart Parnell, on which appears his famous words "No man has a right to fix the boundary to the march of a nation. To say to his country 'thus far shall thou go and no further" are quoted, points to the Rotunda Hospital nearby, once Dublin's main maternity hospital, as though he was encouraging the Irish nation to outbreed its enemies.

Among the major buildings near to O'Connell Street on Dublin's northside are the GPO, the Pro Cathedral (the church which serves as Dublin's de facto Roman Catholic cathedral, though it has never been raised formally to cathedral status, hence the name) and the Rotunda Hospital which serves as North Dublin's main maternity hospital. From the lower end of the street, facing O'Connell Bridge, one can see the famous James Gandon-designed Custom House while looking directly over O'Connell Street, one can see Trinity College Dublin and the Irish House of Lords entrance to the old parliament building. The north of the street links into Parnell Square (formerly Rutland Square) while the south meets Dublin's quays.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Modern O'Connell Street", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki