Gough Monument

John Henry Foley was commisioned to make a statue of Gough c. 1868 or 1871.^[1] Foley sketched the design, but died after making a small model of it.^[2] His pupil Thomas Brock was chosen to cast the design by the people who paid for the monument.^[1][2] The statue was cast from 200 cannons from the Peninsular War.^[3] The casting was completed on 19 October 1878.^[1][4] The cast used for the horse on Foley's previous work, an equestrian statue of Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge, was repurposed for the Gough Monument.^[1] The statue was paid for via public subscription, with the British government providing captured guns for the casting, which Brock melted with tin.^[5] It was originally intended to be placed in Kolkata, India,^[6] but was moved to Dublin as Foley had wanted his native city to have one of his equestrian statues.^[1] In July 1897, Dublin Town Council decided to have their committee directly work with the Gough Statue Committee to decided where to place the statue, effectively refusing previous proposals to place the statue on Carlisle Bridge.^[7] The two committees decided in October to place the statue in Phoenix Park.^[8]

On Christmas Eve 1944, the statue's head and sword were cut off with a hacksaw by vandals.^[9][10][11] In November 1956, the statue's right hind leg was blown off with dynamite,^[12] after which the statue was reinforced with wooden planks.^[13] The following year in January, the Government of Ireland put the monument under police guard as part of an effort to protect it from the IRA (Irish Republican Army).^[14] On 23 July 1957, the IRA^[15][16][17] shattered the statue with a mine explosion,^[13] knocking it off its stone pedestal.^[18][19] Two days after, the Irish Republican Publicity Bureau issued a document saying the Irish Republican Movement had no involvement with the explosion^[20] and the Gardaí detained six men at Bridgewell Garda station in Smithfield in connection with the explosion.^[20][21] The statue was moved to the Office of Public Works' yard in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham.^[3]

In 1986, the Office of Public Works sold the statue to Rupert Guinness, 2nd Earl of Iveagh,^[22] with a condition that "the Gough statue should be taken out of the State".^[3] Guinness brought the statue to the Chillingham Castle in Northumberland to restore it.^[3][17] The Office of Public Works, Guinness and the (at the time) Minister for Finance, Ray MacSharry, entered into a discussion on whether or not to bring the statue back to Dublin,^[17][23] but eventually decided to keep the statue in Northumberland,^[16] where it currently resides.^[24]

The statue depicts Gough wearing a "uniform of honorary colonel of the Royal Horse Guards" on a horse with a "noble design". Gough is depicted with the Order of St Patrick, the Bath and the Star of India on his breast, holding a sword and a Field Marshall baton.^[1] The statue's predestal has an inscription that states the following: "In honour of Field-Marshal Hugh, Viscount Gough, K.P., G.O.B., G.C.S.I., an illustrious Irishman, whose achievements in the Peninsular War, in China and in India, have added lustre to the military glory of his country, which he faithfully served for 75 years. This statue, cast from cannen taken by the troops under his command, and granted by Parliament for the purpose, is erected by his friends and comrades".^[1]

In 2010, a wax mould of the Gough Monument was used to structure Misneach in Ballymun.^[24]

• Equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius
• List of equestrian statues in the United Kingdom