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FOR A LITTLE less than two hours on Thursday morning, I asked nearly one hundred people what – if anything – they felt about The Spire. The answers amounted to a near unanimous feeling of mild positivity.
In typical Irish fashion, the 121m steel monument intended to celebrate the turn of the millennium wasn’t finished until three years later. Today marks the 20th anniversary of the structure’s completion.
Shortly after its inception, the project was beset by complaints and challenges – including a High Court challenge, difficulties in obtaining planning permission, and environmental regulations.
These days, however, there are evidently many among us who are perfectly happy with architect Ian Ritchie’s vision “of elegant and dynamic simplicity, bridging art and technology”.
By way of establishing this, I stood beneath the behemoth with my little notebook, feeling like the Ned Broy meme. The methodology was flawless (note: this methodology is not flawless).
The emphatically polite response by natives and tourists alike caught me off guard. Not one respondent thought it was a monstrosity, or an abomination, or any of the dramatic words I expected to hear from a town whose citizens – as many of them will surely admit – are rarely afraid to complain.
There could be several elements that biased the results of the process, of course. There could be some self-selecting thing happening where people who tend to like The Spire naturally gravitate towards The Spire.
It could also be that it is easier to tell a strange man that you like a 121m-tall steel pole, potentially an object of his worship, rather than risk what might happen if you tell him you don’t like it and it turns out that he’s some kind of Spire fanatic. Indeed, another lesson learned is that people are much more likely to cross the road at a red light if they are being approached by a stranger with a notebook. One man broke into a full sprint.
Nevertheless, the answers I did get revealed a throughline of impressive consistency.
Of the at least 70 (I eventually stopped marking down responses because my hands got too cold, again: flawless methodology) people who stopped to answer my question of “The Spire: y/n?,” only six were what I would call a hard no.
An older couple from Yorkshire, a younger couple from London, another couple from Brazil that spent minutes taking photos of each other in front of it from an angle that quite simply could not have captured what The Spire actually is, were all of them happy that they had seen it.
One family hunkered down at the bottom of it in order to get the whole skybound thing into the frame, and described themselves as “in tourist-mode” – thinking of The Spire in much the same way as they might think of the Guinness Storehouse.
A young Irish woman waiting to meet her friends, who all ended up having generally positive opinions on The Spire, conceded that it wasn’t very pretty, but said it was a very “handy, central meeting spot”.
Among locals, it seems that the landmark is most-prized for its usefulness. In a city without any skyscrapers, it can be seen from damn near anywhere. Everyone knows where it is, and it is as uncontroversial a meeting place as one could hope to suggest. The goal of The Spire was to be very big, and it has undeniably achieved that goal.
No matter what your opinion on The Spire, we must give it its due. It is large. It is central. With the exception of the black spray-paint graffiti that currently adorns it (the word “COB”), it is very shiny.
Between the few nos and many yesses, there was just one individual, a man who looked to be in his 30s, who took a while to ponder whether or not he likes the Spire, looking back and forth between me and the pillar, before eventually saying: “I don’t know”.
One complaint was raised independently by several visitors from abroad: that there is nothing around The Spire to indicate its history or significance. The reason for that might be that it doesn’t really claim to possess either of those things, but it still seems something worth putting in the Dublin City Council suggestion box.
One woman from Belfast, who was standing right next to The Spire, didn’t seem to realise she was standing next to anything at all, and it required this journalist pointing upwards for her to notice that there was anything unusual about the particularly wide steel circumference to her right.
Once made aware of the hulking column, she and her three friends all agreed with nods and murmurs that it seemed to be a pleasant instalment rather than a negative one.
When The Spire was first greenlit, many of the complaints centred around its cost. However, €4,000,000 spent on an enormous steel pole seems quaint when cast against modern examples of government overspend. Even in today’s money, the outlay on The Spire would hardly cover a few week’s worth of labour and materials in the National Children’s Hospital.
It seems that if you are to straw-poll visitors to O’Connell St, both regular and irregular, you are unlikely to find many detractors. Which is just as well, because there’s no way we would ever settle on something to replace it with, and God only knows what it might cost us.
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its a sign of the times on O’Connell St, a wasted needle can be found on every street corner these days
@veronikahladova: yawn
@veronikahladova: again… yawn
@veronikahladova: You’ve got a point.
Stop the spin. Nobody ever liked it.
@Sue: I like it Sue, you can’t really speak for everyone!
@Sue: you are of course speaking for yourself here Sue and not everyone. Never assume that everyone thinks the same as you.
I like it and its part of Dublin
@Áinín: apparently she does for 24 people
@Sue: I’ve liked it from day 1
@Sue: I’d stretch to saying I love it
@Sue: I actually like it.
@Sue: Loved it from Day 1
@Sue: Agreed. It’s lazy. Slapdash. Bring back the fluzey – at least it served a practical purpose, i.e.:bin. The spire…it kind of looks like even ‘it’ wants out while it waits to blast off.
@Sue: I like it. But I suppose I’m unusual in Ireland in that I’m an Irishman who’s not full of self hate towards everything that happens in this country even if it’s a good thing!
“I can see Clearys now the crane has gone”
No creativity .. it evokes absolutely nothing when you look at it .. the laziest design ever , imagine all the potential .. at the end of the day dublin hasn’t hit much atmosphere or personality anymore … so if the deign was planning for the future – the needle is a great depiction of all the needle used for heroine in the area
@Dublin sunrise: Heroine , a La The Commitments , brilliant comment .
It would be nice if they actually maintained it at least. The light strip on the top of the spire has been broken years now.
20 years?! Seems like yesterday when I watched it being raised, piece by piece, from my office window nearby. I liked it then, I love it now. It always seemed a shame that whoever designed it didn’t put a viewing platform in it so the public could get an elevated view over the city. Apparently the Nelson Pillar before it had that function. Still, I love it’s simplicity and it’s on my favourite street in the country. It’s special.
@Noel_Random: Would be interested to know why it’s your favourite street? From my perspective, it has serious potential with its layout and width, and there is also the GPO which is an imposing historic building. What I don’t like about it is that there is almost always an air of menace about the place and it’s not helped by the lack of visible policing day or night. Shopping, drinking and earning out is also severely lacking and it seems to be majority take away food or convenience shops. I’d love to see it change though.
@Longlin: pretty much exactly you describe. The scale, some exceptional buildings. I don’t sense an air of menace at all, mind you, I’m not in the city at night much anymore. What I often suggest to people who are too nervous to enjoy it is to sit outside a pub like Murray’s or cafe nearby on the upper end of the street and just watch the passers by. Apart from tourists, there’s a whole world of new Irish who have brought it back to life. It’s almost like a mini trip to another city like Paris! Too many fast food outlets and too many empty sites sitting there for years but such potential as you say.
@Noel_Random: I was today days old when I realised it was installed in pieces
@Noel_Random: *its* simplicity
The stiletto in the getto we’d be lost without it ,it’s one of our own
@James Delaney: the erection at the intersection
@Henri Poincaré: the spire in the mire
@James Delaney: the stiffy at the liffey
@James Delaney: the poker near Croker
@James Delaney: the pin in the bin
It is an emblem of Dublin and a great alternative to a picture of a pint.
It was a amity project then and it’s still ugly as sin now.
@Pete Gilmartin: Vanity*
@Pete Gilmartin:
Jaws…
I like that our main street has an iconic symbol. Art is always aspirational. I would love to know what it symbolizes to people. That would be an interesting comment thread rather than a yes or no..do you like it or not question. For me it symbolises looking up.. aspiration. Hope. It’s solid. Permanent. Hope constant.. consistent. Secure. There’s a safety about it’s presence.
@derek: u still talking about that hunk of metal or your safety blanket?
@derek: Hope that you can get to the other end of O’Connell Street safely.
A needle – it is very fitting – for all the needles used in the area for people to self medicate … while others not too far away rush along with their brown Thomas ( Chinese owned) paper advertising bags …purch the murch to impress the lurch .. i could easily vomit .
The stiffy by the Liffey
Love it. Really amazing to look up at it when standing at its base or from the end of O Connel st.
Has grown on me over the years.
It’s the nicest thing about o’Connell St.. although that’s not saying much. But hey clearys clock is back. Still trying to remember the name of me date that never turned up 1982 .b I t c h
@Paul Gorry: She sure made a 41 – year impression on you!
@Paul Gorry: lol
I dislike the Spire for what it represents; another monument supposed to be maintained by Dublin City Council but ignored and left to flounder. The lights have not been fully repaired for a number of years now, and seriously need replacing. For the de facto monument of the city to International visitors to not be fully lit, its embarrassing.
@Paul Cunningham: keep her lit…. ( I love the Spire.,, great landmark for pointing tourists in the right direction)
They should put a wind power generator on top and panel the sides with solar panels.
@Rafa Condron: I was thinking about how technologies like this have moved in the last 20 years and the potential for a night time LED display also exists.. wonder what would be designed differently
I preferred the Anna Livia (affectionately known as the floozie)!!
I cannot stand it as a Dubliner,it’s meaningless,I mean we had a World acclaimed piece,before this,Eamon O’ Doherty’s Anna Livia,but due to a combination of wild egomania(the spire)and neglect(DCC)we end up with this.I am a City Centre Trader for 30 years (quite close to it)and I have yet to hear one positive comment.Some visitors have asked;how does one get to the top,and appear incredulous when told ‘you can’t.Please re.ove it. James Carroll.
No poll, for this pole.
It’s the perfect symbol of the north inner city’s drug problem.
I like it love looking at it from Henry street.
Strange that I’ve never seen a postcard of it ,,,I’m sure there are some .
I like it. I loved the light exhibition on it years ago, when spot lights traced patterns on it.
Nobody liked the Eiffel Tower either at first.
I always look for it and then I “know I am in Dublin”…sounds a bit silly but I like it and it is a visual landmark that is part of my Dublin experience.
I also used to teach Junior Cert Maths grinds and it is a trigonometry exam question from one of the years which I always found interesting.
I like it- it’s different and I love to stand at the bottom and look up. You can’t please everyone
I like it, I’m a fan.
The spire is modern day clearys clock
I think most people’s opinion is that its alright but could have been so much better
No.
I like it. could be maintained better.. at least it’s not a statue to the virgin mary or a politician. It’s uninspiring like most of the comments here.
Always liked it.
I hear the spire is so big you can see it from anywhere in the world.
@Irish Antichrist: there are treatments available for those types of disorders.
Pretentious, disappointing, and a tad corporate. So much for artistic Ireland – oh wait…it has squiggles on it. (Pretentious and disappointing are now toxic words, it seems).
What would have been truly brave and artistic: Build four, one for each quarter of the city, and have them all bending and meeting in the middle. But nooo…. Let’s build the simplest design since the wheel and all be looking up like gombeens.
I hate it. Does that give it artistic credibility?
There’s nothing to look at in Dublin really. Ugliest European capital city there is. No wonder some may like the spire lol
Good meeting point for all the Talbot Street “natives”.
Certainly unique..something that makes a constant revenue maybe would of been better but I’m not from Dublin so
This is what the Spire signifies to me, “Provehito in Altum” or Launch into the Deep like a rocket!
the spire is a landmark used to measure distance for anyone trying to rent a place in the city centre. most ads read “x minutes from the spire”.
I think it’s a total eyesore, looks like an over sized lamp post and a total waste of money
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