A proposed memorial for John Condon – Ballybricken’s ‘Boy Soldier’ – has been compared by one Councillor to installing ‘pylons in the parlour’ of Waterford’s ancient city.
But it remains uncertain if the proposed erection of 35 columns to honour John Condon and Waterford’s other war dead in Cathedral Square, will be green-lit in its current guise.
This uncertainty has been added to by the withdrawal of a planned discussion on the memorial which had been scheduled for a City Councillors’ workshop on Thursday last.
And given the controversy which surrounded the ‘Bar Stool’ public art proposal for Grattan Quay (which was subsequently replaced by a nautical-themed installation), considerable debate on the Condon Memorial may yet be required.
The pylon analogy was made by Fianna Fáil Councillor Gary Wyse, who stressed his support for greater public art provision for Waterford city to The Munster Express.
However, Cllr Wyse said that he held reservations regarding both the proposed design and location of the memorial, which he feared could become “a public urinal and giant litter bin”.
“I cannot stress this enough, but I have absolutely no objection to commemorating the tragic loss of life during the First World War, and in particular, the story of John Condon, the boy soldier who lost his life in Ypres in 1915,” he said.
“But the proposed installation of a series of stone pillars in Cathedral Square does not, in my view, evoke any sense of the loss of a young, innocent Irishman on a foreign battlefield.”
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