VIEW OF THE O’CONNELL TOWER - GLASNEVIN CEMETERY IN DUBLIN

The tower was built between 1855 and 1869 to commemorate the death of Daniel O’Connell, who established the cemetery in 1832. The iconic memorial was designed by George Petrie. The tower was closed to the public for about 40 years because the internal stairway was destroyed by a bomb in 1971. The attack was attributed to Loyalist paramilitaries and was carried out as a reprisal for the destruction of Nelson’s Pillar on O’Connell Street. In 1847 Daniel O’Connell died in Genoa on May 15h 1847. His dying wish was that his heart be buried in Rome and his body in Glasnevin cemetery. Daniel O’Connell was buried in the O’Connell Circle in Glasnevin cemetery on August 5th 1847. On May 14th 1869 the remains were exhumed and reinterred in a crypt beneath an Irish round tower.

---