Work to start on Dublin's stainless steel spire

Some said it would be "uncomfortable to the eye". Aviators said planes might crash into it; others described it as "inappropriate to its surroundings", while more complained it would be just too high, too ugly and too dangerous if people tried to climb it.

But come Monday morning all that carping will be put to rest as the Dublin Spire is, in model form at least, unveiled by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and construction on the monument begins.

By the time it is built in late September its 120 m of stainless steel will tower above all other structures in O'Connell Street.

About a year behind schedule, due to planning objections and other delays, the Monument of Light, as it is officially known, will begin to see some light.

"To give an idea of how high it will be, it's the height of the RTE's main transmission mast in Donnybrook," says Ms Anne Graham, project manager of Dublin Corporation's O'Connell Street Plan. "There'll be white lighting from holes at the top 12 metres and lighting at the bottom."

The spire will be on the spot where Nelson's Pillar stood before its destruction in 1966. Its stainless steel has been "shot peened", says Ms Graham. Explaining, she says "little balls have been fired at the metal to give it a dulled effect. And this is self-cleaning".

The bottom 12 metres of the spire, however, will be embellished with an abstract design, parts of which will be highly polished. The spire will be 3 metres in diameter at the bottom, tapering to 15 cms at the top.

Asked how people will be stopped from trying to climb it, Ms Graham answers simply that "they won't be able to. It will be too sheer and they'll slip down before they get very far."

The monument's designer, London-based architect Mr Ian Ritchie, will be there on Monday for the laying of the foundations and the base. In August the first sections of steel will go up. "The cranes will arrive then and we should have the whole monument up by the end of September."

Traffic disruption will be kept to a minimum, she promises, though the street may have to be closed for periods of up to "an hour or so" and only when "traffic levels are at their lowest".

Work will begin later on a granite plaza at the GPO and the rest of the €51 million project. This, adds Ms Graham, "will take a little longer" than it takes to put up the spire.