Monument to Queen Victoria
Monument to Queen Victoria
1908
Sculptor: John Hughes (1865-1941)
Commissioned to commemorate Queen Victoria and the Boer War
Bronze, on marble pedestal with bronze figures
Dublin, Ireland
This statue of Queen Victoria by the Irish sculptor John Hughes was erected in front of Leinster House, Dublin, in 1908. Victoria had visited Dublin in 1900, largely in honor of Irish soldiers who had fought in the Boer War and with a view to further recruitment. The Royal Dublin Society subsequently raised a public subscription for a statue to the queen. The monument includes allegorical bronze figure groups of Fame, Hibernia at Peace, and Hibernia at War; the last shows a Boer War soldier dying in the arms of Ireland, further connecting British imperial activity with an apparently loyal Ireland.
After independence and partition in 1922, Leinster House became the home of the Dáil Éirann, the Irish parliament. Demands were made for the statue’s removal. In 1948, a year before Ireland left the Commonwealth, the monument was finally dismantled. Almost four decades later, in 1986, the statue was given to Sydney, Australia, to stand in front of the newly restored Queen Victoria Building.
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