The Millenium Spire

"The Spire", in O'connel street in downtown Dublin, is in my eyes one of the most remarkable landmarks in the city so far. My very first description of it, to use it as a reference point has been "The Needle".

This stainless steal contruction is 120m high, I think made in England, and even if it seems most people don't know what it is doing there, or why it is there, I have made some research:

It seems the Irish have placed it there to celebrate the entrance of Ireland to the new millenium, and it is in place of what originally was the Nelson pilar. The Nelson monument was a monument to an English general that was blown up in pieces by IRA sometime in 70's/80's just because he was an English general, that no one rememebers either or why he was important. And so, they have put "The Spire" in its place.

But where is the reflex of the Irish spirit in this whole thing? On how people call it. As I have baptized it as "The Needle" they call it: The spire in the mire, the stiletto in the ghetto, the pole in the hole and the erection in the intersection, among others.