The chairman of Wexford County Council says he fully supports a proposal to restore a British monument considered by An Taisce to be of international significance despite "tongue in cheek" remarks to the contrary at last month's meeting of the council.
Mr Sean Doyle says the lightning-damaged Browne Clayton column in Carrigbyrne is "a fine piece of granite architecture" which should be restored if possible. The column, a familiar site to users of the N25 between Wexford and New Ross, was built by a local landlord, Gen Robert Browne Clayton, in 1817 and is in urgent need of repair. Restoration would cost an estimated £500,000.
Mr Doyle, a former member of Sinn Fein and now an Independent, caused a stir following last month's meeting of the council when he said such monuments had no place in Ireland and he had spent some time in his youth trying to destroy them.
He says his remarks were made in jest after fellow councillors, aware of his political past, jokingly suggested his support for the restoration constituted a U-turn. "I do not suffer from xenophobia and in spite of my republican sympathies and my awareness of my country's history I would be in favour of restoring the column if at all possible," he says.
"There are many buildings in this part of Ireland remaining to remind us of the period of imperial domination. The new Ireland should utilise them for the common good. They help to recall the past and where we have come from, and we should be mature enough to look upon them as part of who we are."
Mr Doyle resigned from Sinn Fein in 1984 because of the IRA bombing of Harrods in London, and the murders of a garda and a soldier following the kidnapping of Mr Don Tidey.
The council chairman's support for the restoration of the column at Carrigbyrne has been known for some time to An Taisce, which is having preliminary discussions with a US body, the World Monuments Fund, with a view to securing funding for the project. A spokesman for the organisation, Mr Ian Lumley, says the pillar is "a spectacular example of a monument from the neo-classical period."
The column was modelled on the famous Pompey's Pillar in Alexandria. The structure is hollow, with an internal staircase, which made it particularly vulnerable to the lightning strike which damaged it five years ago.
The column, known variously the Pinnacle, Browne's Folly and Browne's Nonsense, is said to have been built in honour of Sir Ralph Abercrombie, who was in charge of the British forces in Ireland before 1798 but was removed for his liberal views. Browne Clayton later served under Abercrombie in Egypt.
It has also been suggested that Browne Clayton built it as a means of providing work for impoverished locals. The column is on a list of buildings "at risk" currently being compiled by An Taisce.