IT BEGAN life on Westmoreland Street and then moved to D'Olier Street. Now the Irish Times clock has found a new home on Townsend Street, resuming its long-standing watch over the newspaper.
The iconic timepiece dates from the early 1900s and became a part of the Dublin streetscape when it was erected on the old Irish Times building on Westmoreland Street.
This is the fourth change of location for the clock. It was relocated to 10 D'Olier Street sometime after the front office moved from Westmoreland Street in the mid-1970s.
Then it was moved up the street after the facade of numbers 11 and 12 were renovated and it was decided that the new facade was more appropriate.
The Irish Times sold the D'Olier Street premises to developers P Elliott and Company for €29 million in 2006 and moved to Liffey House at the junction of Tara Street and Townsend Street that October.
The clock was sent for refurbishment to Stokes Clocks and Watches in Cork last year and architects Henry J Lyons and Partners were drafted in to plan the clock's new location.
"The challenge was to find the appropriate place to erect it," recalled Maolíosa Ó Floinn, director of the firm.
It was originally intended to mount the clock on the face of the new seven-storey building, but this was not practical because of the weight of the clock and other technical issues.
"It was not really compatible with such a modern building," Mr Ó Floinn said.
"Instead we decided to treat it as a piece of free-standing sculpture."
Planning permission was sought and received for the new piece of street furniture on the Townsend Street side of the building.
The clock with its decorative cast-iron trellis now sits on a structural steel frame, encased in aluminium.
It has been enhanced to illuminate from the inside and will automatically light up at dusk. It has also been automated, allowing time-changes to be made from an electronic panel located inside the building.
"It's a happy marriage between the old and the new," said Mr Ó Floinn. "It's a new piece of urban sculpture."
See www.irishtimes.com for a slideshow on the clock's unveiling.
