New group wants millennium statue to reflect Ireland's Christian tradition

A new group has been formed with the aim of erecting a huge statue of Christ or St Patrick on the Hill of Howth or on the Dublin mountains. The project, which is intended to mark the year 2000, is being undertaken by Millennium Ireland, a voluntary group which wishes to promote a Christian observance of the new millennium.

Announcing the formation of the group yesterday, Mr John O'Halloran said that from what he had heard, the Government's plans for the millennium were "anything but Christian".

"Already", he said, "people who do not realise that this is Christ's birthday have suggested celebrating the millennium by building swimming pools, clocks in the River Liffey, an opera house, millennium domes, canal extensions, millennium breakfasts, an international telecommunications festival and an RTE plan for leisure and lifestyle programmes on television."

Some people were even planning to fly to the island of Tonga in the South Pacific in order to enjoy the beginning of the year 2000 before anyone else in Ireland, he said. "What all this has to do with Christ's birthday and 2,000 years of Christianity is not very clear."

One thing people could do was "stop the de-Christianising of our country by our politicians". During recent years, politicians had removed the term "Christian" from all official documents; they had introduced a "pagan festival in Dublin to celebrate St Patrick's Day" and a stamp commemorating "Bram Stoker, Dracula and his satanic activities", having first refused to issue a stamp commemorating the 1,500th anniversary of the death of Colmcille "until they were embarrassed into doing so by the British Post Office and public opinion". They had also removed the shamrock, replacing it with a "meaningless distorted version".

What Ireland needed, Mr O'Halloran said, was something "clear and vivid to portray us as a Christian people". He felt O'Connell Street might also be a suitable site for a large statue of Christ or St Patrick, something on the lines of Lisbon's Christ the King.