Fusiliers Arch looking out of St Stephens Green

The Fusiliers' Arch is a monument which forms part of the

Grafton Street Grafton Street () is one of the two principal shopping streets in Dublin city centre (the other being Henry Street). It runs from St Stephen's Green in the south (at the highest point of the street) to College Green in the north (the lowes ...

entrance to

St Stephen's Green St Stephen's Green () is a garden square and public park located in the city centre of Dublin, Ireland. The current landscape of the park was designed by William Sheppard. It was officially re-opened to the public on Tuesday, 27 July 1880 by ...

park, in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. Erected in 1907, it was dedicated to the

officers An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," f ...

, non-commissioned officers and enlisted men of the

Royal Dublin Fusiliers The Royal Dublin Fusiliers was an Irish infantry Regiment of the British Army created in 1881, one of eight Irish regiments raised and garrisoned in Ireland, with its home depot in Naas. The Regiment was created by the amalgamation of two Brit ...

who fought and died in the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

(1899–1902).

Construction

Funded by public subscription, the arch was designed by John Howard Pentland and built by Henry Laverty and Sons. Thomas Drew consulted on the design and construction. The proportions of the structure are said to be modelled on the

Arch of Titus The Arch of Titus ( it, Arco di Tito; la, Arcus Titi) is a 1st-century AD honorific arch, located on the Via Sacra, Rome, just to the south-east of the Roman Forum. It was constructed in 81 AD by the Emperor Domitian shortly after the death of ...

in Rome. It is approximately wide and high. The internal dimensions of the arch are 5.6 m high and approximately 3.7 m wide (18 by 12 ft). The main structure of the arch is granite, with the inscriptions carried out in limestone and a bronze adornment on the front of the arch.

Dedication and reception

The arch was commissioned to commemorate the four battalions (two regular and two militia) of the

that served in the Second Boer war. The names of 222 dead are inscribed on the underside of the arch. The construction of the arch coincided with a time of political and social change in Ireland, and the colonial and imperial background to the dedication were anathema to a burgeoning nationalist movement – who labelled the structure "Traitor's Gate". Though damaged in a cross-fire between the

Irish Citizen Army The Irish Citizen Army (), or ICA, was a small paramilitary group of trained trade union volunteers from the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU) established in Dublin for the defence of workers' demonstrations from the Dublin M ...

and British forces during the 1916 Easter Rising, the arch remains "one of the few colonialist monuments in Dublin not blown up" in Ireland's post-independence history.

Text

Engraved on the western face is the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

text, , "To its strongest soldiers, Dublin dedicates this monument, 1907." ( Eblana is a name that appears on

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...

's 2nd century AD map of Ireland, traditionally taken as a Latin name for Dublin, although it more likely refers to a site further north, around

Loughshinny Loughshinny ( ; meaning 'lake of the fox') is a small coastal village in northern County Dublin, Ireland, between Skerries and Rush. Loughshinny's more famous landmarks are the Martello Tower on the nearby headland of Drumanagh and some unus ...

.) Six battlefields are inscribed on the arch: *Talana: Battle of Talana Hill, 20 October 1899 *Ladysmith:

Battle of Ladysmith The Battle of Ladysmith was one of the early engagements of the Second Boer War. A large British force which had concentrated at the garrison town of Ladysmith launched a sortie on 30 October 1899, against Boer armies which were slowly surround ...

, 30 October 1899 *Colenso: Battle of Colenso, 15 December 1899 *Tugela Heights:

Battle of the Tugela Heights The Battle of Tugela (or Thukela) Heights, consisted of a series of military actions lasting from 14 February through to 27 February 1900 in which General Sir Redvers Buller's British army forced Louis Botha's Boer army to lift the Siege of Lady ...

, 14–27 February 1900 *Hartshill: Hart's Hill, 23 February 1900, part of the

Relief of Ladysmith When the Second Boer War broke out on 11 October 1899, the Boers had a numeric superiority within Southern Africa. They quickly invaded the British territory and laid siege to Ladysmith, Kimberley and Mafeking. Britain meanwhile transported th ...

*Laings Nek:

Laing's Nek Laing's Nek, or Lang's Nek is a pass through the Drakensberg mountain range, South Africa, immediately north of Majuba, at at an elevation of 5400 to . It is the lowest part of a ridge which slopes from Majuba to the Buffalo River, and before ...

was scene of intense fighting 2–9 June 1900. Not to be confused with the more famous

Battle of Laing's Nek The Battle of Laing's Nek was a major battle fought at Laing's Nek during the First Boer War on 28 January 1881. Background Following the Boer declaration of independence for the Transvaal in 1880 the British suffered a series of disastrous def ...

(1881)

Notes and references

{{reflist Triumphal arches Buildings and structures in Dublin (city) Second Boer War memorials St Stephen's Green Buildings and structures completed in 1907 20th-century architecture in the Republic of Ireland