Dublin Raises Spire To Inspire

Thousands of Dubliners applauded and cheered Tuesday as engineers completed the Spire, a long-delayed monument that is the tallest structure in Ireland.

"It's a grand sight. Your ears pop just looking at her," said Gerry Lawlor, his head craned sideways trying to take in all 400 feet of the stainless steel spike that rises from the center of Dublin's broadest thoroughfare, O'Connell Street.

Like most things in the Emerald Isle, the Spire has spurred loads of entertaining argument and ended up taking a lot longer than envisaged.

Conceived in 2000 to be Ireland's principal millennium project, the conical, all-steel Spire faced repeated delays that began with a conservationist's lawsuit and culminated in recent weeks of harsh winter winds.

But finally around noon Tuesday, O'Connell Street traffic and shoppers halted in their tracks and RTE broadcast live as a 460-foot crane lifted the sixth and final piece into place.

Once construction workers inside the Spire's hollow tube had bolted the top into place, Dublin had a monument twice as tall as Ireland's tallest building, the nearby Liberty Hall.

The Spire, a stand-alone structure with its own foundation, cost $4.5 million, nearly twice the original estimate.

Some in the crowd questioned whether it was worth it, particularly at a moment when Ireland's vaunted Celtic Tiger economy has stopped roaring and government red ink is rising for the first time in a decade.

"It's a terrible waste of money in a country where our infrastructure's still in a dire state. I'd much rather be looking at a three-lane motorway or a row of new hospital beds," said Terry Porter, a lunchtime shopper in Henry Street, a strip of premier shops beside the new monument.

But a passer-by, overhearing Porter's remark, would have none of his negativity.

"Come now, don't be so sour," chided Olive McBrearty, her shopping bags draped over the handles of a baby buggy bearing two children. "We'd all like it if everything worked in this country, but it never will. And doesn't that spike make your heart soar a wee bit?"

"Well, it is impressive. It's far taller than I'd imagined," Porter conceded — then offered a wicked riposte. "I just hope it doesn't end up falling down on anything important."

Designed by London architect Ian Ritchie, whose original design was called "monument of light," the Spire is engineered to sway up to 8.2 feet in the wind. It's about 10 feet wide at its base and just half an inch at its tip.

The top 39 feet are perforated to allow lights inside to beam out, making the Spire visible from miles around.