1916 MEMORIAL – THE PEOPLE’S PARK IN BRAY
This is shown on Google Maps as the Irish Republic Monument but it is a 1916 Memorial installed in 2016 to commemorate the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising.
monument
THE WYVERN IN FRONT OF McDONALDS IN BRAY – BRABAZON MONUMENT
THE WYVERN IN FRONT OF McDONALDS IN BRAY – BRABAZON MONUMENT
A wyvern is a legendary bipedal winged dragon usually depicted with a tail ending in a diamond- or arrow-shaped tip. The wyvern in its various forms is important to heraldry, frequently appearing as a mascot of schools and athletic teams
In front of the main entrance to the Town Hall, now McDonalds, and facing down Main Street is a monument surmounted by a wyvern holding a shield with the Brabazon crest on it. The underside of the basin is elaborately carved and the pedestal, which has robust lion heads, has in inscription so weathered it has become illegible.
Reginald Brabazon, Lord Ardee, was the owner of much of the Bray estate in the 1880s.
Reginald Brabazon, was an Irish politician and philanthropist. He is buried in the graveyard of the Church of Ireland parish church in the village of Delgany, County Wicklow, Ireland, along with his wife and son. There are some streets and squares in The Coombe, Dublin, named in his honour: Reginald Street, Reginald Square and Brabazon Square.
WELLINGTON TESTIMONIAL ALSO KNOWN AS THE WELLINGTON MONUMENT
WELLINGTON TESTIMONIAL ALSO KNOWN AS THE WELLINGTON MONUMENT IN PHOENIX PARK DUBLIN
The Wellington Testimonial was built to commemorate the victories of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. Wellington, the British politician and general, also known as the ‘Iron Duke’, was born in either counties Meath or Dublin. Originally planned to be located in Merrion Square, it was built in the Phoenix Park after opposition from the square’s residents.
The obelisk was designed by the architect Sir Robert Smirke and the foundation stone was laid in 1817. In 1820 it ran out of construction funds and therefore remained unfinished until 18 June 1861 when it was opened to the public. There were also plans for a statue of Wellesley on horseback but the shortage of funds ruled that out.
There are four bronze plaques cast from cannons captured at Waterloo – three of which have pictorial representations of his career while the fourth has an inscription. The plaques depict ‘Civil and Religious Liberty’ by John Hogan, ‘Waterloo’ by Thomas Farrell and the ‘Indian Wars’ by Joseph Robinson Kirk. The inscription reads:
Asia and Europe, saved by thee, proclaim
Invincible in war thy deathless name,
Now round thy brow the civic oak we twine
That every earthly glory may be thine.
SEAN HEUSTON MONUMENT
SEAN HEUSTON MONUMENT BY LAURENCE CAMPBELL – PEOPLES FLOWER GARDENS IN PHOENIX PARK
Sean Heuston was one of the sixteen men executed for their role in leading the 1916 uprising.
This memorial, by Laurence Campbell, is located in the People’s Garden in the Phoenix Park and I have seen it described as “a magnificent statue of Sean Heuston”.
The three-quarter scale statue was unveiled and blessed by his brother Rev. M. Heuston in Phoenix Park in 1943.
Nearby Heuston Railway Station, orginally known as “Kingsbridge” station, was renamed “Heuston” station in honor of Sean Heuston on October 9th of 1966.
LARGE CELTIC CROSS
MOUNT JEROME CEMETERY – SIR BERESFORD McMAHON AND FAMILY
There are not many Celtic Crosses in the older sections of this cemetery but this cross is impressive by any standards.
Sir Beresford Burston McMahon was born on 14 February 1808. He was the son of Sir William McMahon and Frances Burston. He married Maria Catherine Bateson, daughter of Sir Robert Bateson and Catherine Dickson, on 4 January 1838. He died on 11 January 1873 at age 64.
He gained the rank of Captain in the Scots Fusiliers Guards.
It was difficult to read the inscriptions:
BERESFORD McMAHON Died 11 January 1873
MARIA CATHERINE McMAHON Died 6 August 1876
I believe that there are four or five other family members buried here.
Sir William MacMahon, 1st Baronet (1776–1837) was an Irish judge of the early nineteenth century. He was a member of a Limerick family which became politically prominent through their personal influence with the Prince Regent. He was the first of the McMahon Baronets of Dublin.
William married firstly Frances Burston, daughter of Beresford Burston K.C., who died in 1813; and secondly Charlotte Shaw, daughter of Sir Robert Shaw, 1st Baronet of Bushy Park and his first wife Maria Wilkinson. Of his ten children, who included his heir Sir Beresford MacMahon, 2nd Baronet, the most notable was his third son Charles MacMahon (1824–1891) who had a distinguished career in Australia as a politician, and who was the second Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police from 1854-58. Charles MacMahon was also Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly between 1871-77.
Although William married into two prominent Dublin families, the Burstons and the Shaws of Bushy Park,his most valued relative was his much older half-brother, Sir John McMahon, 1st Baronet (1754–1817) who in 1811 was appointed private secretary to the Prince Regent, later King George IV, and who in the remaining six years of his life was considered to have great influence over the Prince. Certainly he was able to obtain favours for his family: William noted cynically that barristers who had previously despised his family’s lowly origins now began fawning on him. When John Philpot Curran retired as Master of the Rolls in Ireland John was able to obtain the office for William, who was only 37; this is said to be one of the few occasions when the British Royal family has directly intervened in a judicial appointment. William, like his brother, became a baronet. From 1811 he lived at Fortfield House, Terenure, County Dublin, which had been built in 1805 by Barry Yelverton,
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