THE PLOUGH and the Stars drama ended almost before it started: the mysterious disappearance of a key part of the James Connolly memorial, which sits in the shadow of Liberty Hall in Dublin, was yesterday solved.
On Sunday afternoon, tour guide Lorcan Collins was taking a group of five tourists on one of his highly regarded 1916 walking tours and was horrified to see that a chunk of the James Connolly statue was missing.
He immediately contacted the Garda and got in touch with Siptu which looks after the statue to tell them that three stars and the plough handle had been
removed. He also posted details of the suspected theft on the 1916 Walks Facebook page after which news of the disappearance quickly spread via Twitter.
Before you could say “Talk to Joe”, he was on Liveline appealing to the thieves to return the stars and the handle.
Mr Collins is one of the States foremost experts on Connolly and is writing a book on him which is to be published next year. He feels a particular affinity with the memorial which was created by artist Eamon O’Doherty in 1996 to mark the 80th anniversary of the Easter Rising. ODoherty died earlier this year. Within hours of the theft being reported to the Garda, it emerged that the
plough and the stars had not actually been stolen but taken away for repair by a member of the Siptu committee.
“I’m a little bit embarrassed by the furore I have caused obviously,” Mr Collins said
