STATUE OF CHRIST

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11832, 13 January 1933, Page 2

STATUE OF CHRIST

.100 FEET HI'GU

IRELAND’S £25.000 LANDMARK

An immense statue of Christ, standing 100 feet , high, is to be erected fit a cost of £25,000 oil a spot overlooking Kingstown Harbour. Dublin. ’lt will be one of the most striking landmarks in the world. At night it will be floodlit, and sailors eight miles out to sea will see it towering like a white shaft into the sky.

The architect and sculptor is Andrew O’Connor, an Trisli-Amc-rioan Who'- is at work on Lis gigantic task in his Paris studio. Details of this ambitious : project acre given to “The Daily Mail” bv Frank M. Webb, the municipal surveyor of Kingstown.

“All the money for the slar-o,” lie said, “is being subscribed voluntarily, and it will, we hope, lie finished in about two years. A concrete replica in miniature of the finished work lias already been erected on the selected site, so that vis itors can see what the st'ainc will be like.”

The figure of Christ, will be 30ft. high, surmounting a plain triangular column 70 feet high. The whole work is to be executed in grey granite.

“The statue/’ continued Webb, “is not to follow orthodox lines. It will be O’Connor’s own conception of Christ the King.” It will be regarded by Irish people as a symbol of the Roman Catholic faith, and the municipal authorities will not call upon the ratepayers to contribute 16 the cost through the rates.