Perhaps it is not a very exciting job, but I am told that, for a student of human affairs, it is an interesting one - the keeping of the gates of Nelson's Pillar.
All sorts of people climb those 166 steps, for all sorts of reasons. The Yank toils protestingly upwards, and mutters something about escalators and the Statue of Liberty, the kids run till they are breathless, chanting their counting; now and then a Dubliner, self-consciously, slips through the turnstile, and wonders if he is in Dublin at all.
Sometimes over fifty people will visit the tower in a day, sometimes scarcely a soul; £3 is a good average taking during the summer months. The peak period is between June and August. You will hear Scotch accents floating upwards these days. Due to the curious build of the Pillar and the breeze for ever sweeping into it, the voices of those speaking in the porchway below can be heard at the top of the stairs.
That same breeze makes the porter's post a cold one in winter; it is dark inside then, and the cooing of the pigeons sounds weird. However, he has been ten years on the job now and has grown philosophic. "At least," he says, "I've got a good air-raid shelter in case of raids."
The Irish Times, July 20th, 1939.