A fountain dedicated to Queen Victoria is the latest monument to be vandalised in Dublin. Red paint was thrown over the structure in Dun Laoghaire shortly before 10pm last night.
The fountain was previously attacked in 1981 by a group who said they were supporting the H-Block prisoners.
Gardaí say no arrests have yet been made and investigations are ongoing. Erected in Dún Laoghaire in 1900 to commemorate the visit to Ireland of Queen Victoria, and seriously damaged in the 1980s by the IRA, the fountain was recently restored.
The fountain was one of a large number celebrating Queen Victoria erected in Ireland and throughout other British colonies to a standardised design by Glasgow manufacturers Walter McFarland & Co.
That company has since ceased trading but much of its business was inherited by another Scottish firm, Industrial Heritage, who were responsible for the structure’s repair and restoration.
Nationalists have consistently called for its removal, as in this example just a week ago.
Earlier this evening AIA and Macradh activists unveiled a banner on the ‘Victoria Monument’ in Dún Laoghaire that reads ‘Tear Down the Genocide Queen’.
Victoria, the English monarch presided over the Irish Genocide of the 1840s. Any monument to English imperialism is a disgrace pic.twitter.com/YExKkedK6w
— Anti Imperialist Action Ireland (@AIAIreland) June 18, 2020
