This modern statue is located at St Kilian’s German School on Roebuck Road in Clonskeagh.
I am still experimenting with Google Bard and used it to research St Killian but some of the information was somewhat doubtful. For example I could not confirm that the Town Of Killarney [referred to as a city by Bard] is named after St Killian. The Irish for Killarney is Cill Airne meaning the “Church Of Sloes”.
Saint Killian [also spelled Cillian or Killian] was a seventh-century Irish missionary who is credited with bringing Christianity to Franconia, a region in what is now Germany. He is also the patron saint of Würzburg, the capital of Bavaria.
Killian was born in Ireland in the early seventh century. He was educated at the monastery of Clonmacnoise, one of the most important centres of learning in Ireland at the time. After his education, Killian traveled to Gaul (modern-day France) to preach the Gospel.
In Gaul, Killian met with some success in converting pagans to Christianity. However, he also made some enemies, including Duke Gosbert of Franconia. Gosbert’s wife, Geilana, was a pagan, and she was opposed to Killian’s mission.
In 689, Killian and his companions were murdered by Geilana’s followers. They were killed in Würzburg, and their bodies were buried in the city.
Killian’s death did not end his influence. He was soon venerated as a martyr, and his cult spread throughout Germany. In 742, his relics were exhumed and placed in a new church in Würzburg. The church was dedicated to Killian, and it became a major pilgrimage site.
Killian is remembered as a courageous and dedicated missionary who helped to spread Christianity in Germany. He is also celebrated as a martyr who died for his faith.
In addition to his missionary work, Killian is also known for his contributions to the development of the Church in Germany. He was instrumental in establishing the diocese of Würzburg, and he is credited with introducing the Gregorian chant to the region.
Killian’s feast day is celebrated on July 8. He is the patron saint of Würzburg, the diocese of Würzburg, and the city of Killarney in Ireland.
Killian is a significant figure in both Irish and German history. He is remembered as a courageous missionary who helped to spread Christianity in both countries. He is also celebrated as a martyr who died for his faith. Killian’s legacy continues to inspire people today.
Here are some additional facts about Saint Killian:
His name means “little champion”. He is often depicted in art with a sword, a symbol of his martyrdom. He was born in Ireland around the year 640. He studied under Saint Columban at the monastery of Luxeuil in Gaul. In 686, he set out for Franconia to preach the Gospel. He was killed by Geilana, the wife of Duke Gozbert of Thuringia, in 689. He was canonized in the 9th century. His feast day is celebrated on July 8. He is the patron saint of Würzburg, Germany, and missionaries.
St. Kilian’s German School in Dublin was founded in the early 1950s, developing from the work of a Dublin charity, the Save the German Children Society, founded in 1945. The school was originally a Sunday school, offering German classes to children who came to Ireland as part of the programme run by the Save the German Children Society.
In 1954, the school was named St. Kilian’s and three years later relocated to a site on the Stillorgan Road in Dublin, which could also accommodate a Kindergarten. The school expanded and grew in the following years, and in 1961-2011, it had a delegated Headmaster from Germany and a Deputy Principal supported by the Department of Education in Ireland.
In 1974, the school moved to its current campus in Clonskeagh. In 1976, the school was recognised by the Irish Department of Education and given a roll number. Two years later, the first group of St. Kilian’s students sat the Leaving Certificate.
In 1989, the school introduced the Sprachdiplom Exams, a significant step in establishing the higher pedagogical benchmark for the teaching and learning of German in the school. In 1992, St. Kilian’s became a member of the European Schools’ Association.
Today, St. Kilian’s German School is a thriving institution with a student body of over 500 pupils from over 30 different countries. The school offers a wide range of academic and extracurricular activities, and its graduates go on to study at leading universities around the world.
Here are some of the key milestones in the history of St. Kilian’s German School:
1952: The school is founded as a Sunday school. 1954: The school is named St. Kilian’s. 1957: The school relocates to Stillorgan Road. 1961-2011: The school has a delegated Headmaster from Germany and a Deputy Principal supported by the Department of Education in Ireland. 1974: The school moves to Clonskeagh. 1976: The school is recognised by the Irish Department of Education. 1989: The school introduces the Sprachdiplom Exams. 1992: St. Kilian’s becomes a member of the European Schools’ Association.
The statue in my photographs, located near the tram stop, was unveiled in June 1892. The Irish Times reported that the large presence of “the trades and of the working people” showed the gratitude of ordinary Dubliners to Ardilaun. The fine granite statue was sculptured by Thomas Farrell who was also the sculptor responsible for the statues of William Smith O’Brien and Sir John Gray, both of which can be seen on O’Connell Street today.
Arthur Edward Guinness, 1st Baron Ardilaun, 2nd Baronet (1 November 1840 – 20 January 1915), known as Sir Arthur Guinness, Bt, between 1868 and 1880, was an Irish businessman, politician, and philanthropist, best known for giving St Stephen’s Green to the Dublin Corporation for public use.
Ulysses by James Joyce includes several references to Ardilaun, as Joyce considered him to be a prime Irish example of Victorian conventional respectability. The porter brewed by the “cunning brothers” – he and his brother Lord Iveagh – was: “a crystal cup full of the foamy ebon ale which the noble twin brothers Bungiveagh and Bungardilaun brew ever in their divine alevats, cunning as the sons of deathless Leda. For they garner the succulent berries of the hop and mass and sift and bruise and brew them and they mix therewith sour juices and bring the must to the sacred fire and cease not night or day from their toil, those cunning brothers, lords of the vat.”[15] “Bung” referred to the stopper in a wooden barrel of beer. In the “Nighttown” section, the breasts of a girl who is undressing are “Two ardilauns”, meaning “two high islands”, a play on the Gaelic meaning of the word.
In 1902-03 Joyce also wrote literary reviews in the Irish Daily Express which was owned by Ardilaun.
In 1871 Lord Ardilaun married Lady Olivia Hedges-White, daughter of The 3rd Earl of Bantry, whose family home is Bantry House in County Cork; this was a happy but childless marriage.
He died on 20 January 1915 at his home at St Anne’s, Raheny, and was buried at All Saints Church, Raheny, whose construction he had sponsored. Those present at the funeral included representatives of the Royal Dublin Society, of which Lord Ardilaun was president for many years, the Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland, the Irish Unionist Alliance, and the Primrose League. His barony became extinct at his death, but the baronetcy devolved upon his nephew Algernon.
On his widow’s death Saint Anne’s Park passed to Algernon’s cousin Rev. Benjamin Plunket former Bishop of Meath, who sold most of the estate to Dublin Corporation in 1937, keeping Sybil Hill as his residence. The corporation has preserved much of the estate as one of Dublin’s most important public parks, though the house itself burnt down in 1943, with the remaining lands used for housing. The outcome of Ardilaun’s extensive tree plantings came into focus a century after his death, when in 2019 the park was given Green Flag status, and was listed as one of the world’s top five urban public parks.
Thomas Michael Kettle (9 February 1880 – 9 September 1916) was an Irish economist, journalist, barrister, writer, war poet, soldier and Home Rule politician. As a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for East Tyrone from 1906 to 1910 at Westminster. He joined the Irish Volunteers in 1913, then on the outbreak of World War I in 1914 enlisted for service in the British Army, with which he was killed in action on the Western Front in the Autumn of 1916. He was a much admired old comrade of James Joyce, who considered him to be his best friend in Ireland, as well as the likes of Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, Oliver St. John Gogarty and Robert Wilson Lynd.
He was one of the leading figures of the generation who at the turn of the twentieth century gave new intellectual life to Irish party politics, and to the constitutional movement towards All-Ireland Home Rule. A gifted speaker with an incisive mind and devastating wit, his death was regarded as a great loss to Ireland’s political and intellectual life.
As G. K. Chesterton surmised, “Thomas Michael Kettle was perhaps the greatest example of that greatness of spirit which was so ill rewarded on both sides of the channel […] He was a wit, a scholar, an orator, a man ambitious in all the arts of peace; and he fell fighting the barbarians because he was too good a European to use the barbarians against England, as England a hundred years before has used the barbarians against Ireland”.
Kettle was killed in action with ‘B’ Company of the 9th Battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers in an attack on German lines on 9 September 1916, near the village of Ginchy during the Battle of the Somme. During the advance Kettle was felled when the Dublin Fusiliers were ‘struck with a tempest of fire’, and having risen from the initial blow, he was struck again and killed outright. His body was buried in a battlefield grave by the Welsh Guards, but the grave was subsequently lost trace of. His name is etched on the monumental arched gateway for the missing of the Somme at Thiepval. He was 36-years old.
The poet George William Russell wrote about Kettle, comparing his sacrifice with those who led the 1916 Easter Rising:
You proved by death as true as they, In mightier conflicts played your part, Equal your sacrifice may weigh Dear Kettle of the generous heart.
14 September 2021 in Dún Laoghaire the Roger Casement Statue was lifted into place at the end of the new jetty at the Dún Laoghaire Baths project, which was still under construction. The statue was commissioned by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and commemorates Casement who was born in Sandycove in 1864, became an early international human rights campaigner and who was executed for his part in the 1916 Rising.
Speaking at the arrival of the sculpture to the site, An Cathaoirleach Lettie McCarthy, said: “I am delighted to see this sculpture of Roger Casement being lifted into place. It is a remarkable piece that will undoubtably become a focal point of interest. Its arrival also marks further progress on the redevelopment of the Dún Laoghaire Baths area.”