Male statues on Pana rejected
A call for three statues of men to be erected on St Patrick's Street was met with great opposition due to lack of diversity and estimated costs this week.
The motion from Fine Gael (FG) Cllr Shane O’Callaghan was discussed, and later voted on at this week's meeting of Cork City Council, the first to be held online.
His motion asked: “That Cork City Council call upon the Government to provide national funding for the erection of monuments and statutes of Tomás MacCurtain, Terence MacSwiney and Michael Collins on Patrick Street to commemorate Cork’s contribution to the struggle for Irish independence and to the establishment of an independent Irish State.”
Cllr O’Callaghan said: “The monuments and statues should be of a similar size and design as the monument and statute of Father Matthew, which is currently on St Patrick's Street.” He estimated that it would cost €300,000, €100,000 per statue.
Historian and Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy was the first to object to the motion saying that he could not support erecting three statues of men and not honour any women. He said the involvement women played was being “completely forgotten about” and mentioned Cumann na mBan.
Fianna Fáil Cllr Terry Shannon questioned how much the statues would cost while adding that Cork city already honours many of the revolutionaries. He also said that there’s a big gratitude for women involved in the fight but “there’s no statues of them”.
Green Party Cllr Oliver Moran also said he couldn’t support the motion and the idea of three statues of men wouldn’t “capture the nuances of the revolution”, while Workers’ Party Cllr Ted Tynan said the money could be spent on other things like education.
FG Cllr Deirdre Forde stood up for her party colleague, Cllr O’Callaghan, and said that these three statues would be a starting point while another FG Cllr Des Cahill asked the councillor to withdraw the motion and work with the Commemoration Committee. Cllr O’Callaghan said he wasn’t excluding the role women played. Paul Moynihan who heads up the centenary celebrations in City Hall said the focus was on organising events and legacy projects. The motion fell with ten for and 14 against.