Maud Gonne Statue Project Moves into Its Next Phase

After a period of essential work behind the scenes, the Maud Gonne Society is pleased to report significant progress on the campaign to erect a statue of Maud Gonne in Dublin.

We have now established a dedicated Irish euro bank account for the Society. This is an important practical milestone, providing the financial foundation we need to receive membership payments and donations, manage the funds already raised, and prepare for the next stage of fundraising for the statue.

We are also convening the Society’s founding trustees. The group brings together distinguished expertise in Irish women’s history, revolutionary politics, public commemoration and Maud Gonne’s life and legacy, as well as direct representation from her family. The trustees will help establish the Society’s governance, agree its priorities and guide the statue project through the complex stages ahead.

The Republican Women Monument

We have also made contact with Dublin City Council concerning its proposed monument honouring the women of Ireland’s revolutionary period.

We warmly welcome this important initiative. The absence of named women from Dublin’s most prominent commemorative spaces has long distorted the public telling of Irish history. A major monument recognising women as an active collective force in the revolutionary period would begin to address that imbalance.

The Council project and the Maud Gonne statue are, however, distinct and complementary.

A collective monument can recognise the immense contribution made by many women across the suffrage movement, the labour struggle, the revolutionary organisations and the campaign for Irish independence. A dedicated statue does something different: it allows one woman to be publicly named, seen and encountered in the fullness of her individual life.

Maud Gonne was not only a republican activist. She was a political organiser, public speaker, journalist, actor, campaigner for prisoners and impoverished children, cultural nationalist, internationalist and founder of Inghinidhe na hÉireann. Her influence extended across political, cultural and humanitarian life for more than half a century. She deserves a visible place in Dublin’s public landscape in her own right.

While we do not see the two projects as rivals, our intention is to understand the scope, artistic brief and timetable of the Council’s monument, to explore where the Maud Gonne Society might contribute historical knowledge and perspective, and to consider how the two initiatives can strengthen the wider movement to restore women to Ireland’s commemorative landscape.

We have requested a meeting with the Council representatives best placed to discuss the project.

What happens next

Over the coming months, the Society will:

• hold its first full meeting of trustees;

• complete and launch the new website;

• open formal discussions with Dublin City Council;

• seek specialist advice on possible locations, public-art commissioning and permissions;

• begin developing the artistic and historical brief for a Maud Gonne statue;

• prepare the next phase of public fundraising and supporter engagement; and

• consider the long-term care and stewardship of the completed work.

Public statues take time. They require historical research, artistic vision, civic support, permissions, funding and persistence. Much of the earliest work is necessarily quiet and largely invisible. 

We are delighted, however, that the foundations for the work that will see actual foundations laid are now in place.

The purpose of the campaign remains clear: to secure a prominent and permanent public statue of Maud Gonne in Dublin, honouring her as a woman in her own right and restoring her extraordinary contribution to the streets and history of the city and country she helped to shape.

We look forward to sharing further developments as the project progresses.

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