Gabion: Mystic monument: Ian Ritchie's Spire of Dublin. 1/6

(Text and photos © Hugh Pearman. The complete version of the article published in The Sunday Times, 16th February 2003, as "So what's the point?")

A monument, so says the dictionary, is anything that preserves the memory of a person or event. But it adds that a monument can be anything that is considered an object of beauty. Right then. On both counts, architect Ian Ritchie's 400-foot high stainless-steel needle, recently erected in the centre of Dublin, is a monument. And a singularly interesting one.

It is officially called "the Spire of Dublin" and unofficially - by all Dubliners - as "the Spike". It has created a storm of interest in Ireland and has already become the most-photographed as well as most-discussed part of the city. It stands at a key crossroads in O'Connell Street, Dublin's main thoroughfare. It's at the equivalent of London's Oxford Circus. And it has a history: because this particular monument replaces another - a squat Nelson's pillar, previously a viewing platform for the city, which was blown up by the IRA in 1966.