Spire of Dublin
A 120-metre stainless-steel pin planted on the exact spot where an IRA bomb in 1966 — and a controlled demolition six days later — erased Nelson's Pillar.
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The Spire — officially the Monument of Light (An Túr Solais) — is the centrepiece of a 1998 overhaul that dragged O'Connell Street back from a strip of fast-food restaurants and cheap plastic shopfronts. It resolved the decades-long search for a permanent replacement after the Pillar's destruction, and the regeneration around it reshaped the entire thoroughfare.
What to look for
- The pin-like stainless steel form tapering as it climbs 120 metres — also known by its Irish name An Túr Solais (Tower of Light)
- The granite plaza underfoot, laid as part of the same 1998–2004 street regeneration that commissioned the Spire
- The streetscape around it: traffic lanes were reduced and plastic shopfronts replaced during the same project — the Spire and the street are one scheme
On O'Connell Street, Dublin's main thoroughfare — an outdoor public monument, no admission required.
Spire of Dublin is one of 35 sights worth the detour in Dublin, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Dublin pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Dublin
- Aviva StadiumOne 51,711-seat bowl jointly owned by rugby and football — two governing bodies, one ground, no separate home for either.
- Dublin CastleThe river that gave Dublin its name still flows beneath your feet — and the building above it ran Ireland for 750 years.
- Croke ParkThe fourth-largest stadium in Europe holds 82,300 people — almost entirely for sports most of the world has never watched.
- National Library of IrelandIreland's paper memory — manuscripts, photographs, and newspapers free to open on the spot.
- St Patrick's CathedralIreland's national cathedral has never had a bishop — that role belongs to the rival church 400 metres up the road.
- Leinster HouseA private ducal palace built on Dublin's wrong side of town in 1745 — the gamble paid off, and now it is Ireland's parliament.