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Misneach
Misneach infront of Trinity Comprehensive School
Misneach is located in Dublin
Misneach
Location within Dublin
Map
Interactive map of Misneach
LocationBallymun, Dublin, Ireland
Coordinates53°23′36″N 6°15′48″W / 53.39322°N 6.26333°W / 53.39322; -6.26333
DesignerJohn Byrne
TypeEquestrian statue
MaterialBronze
Completion date17 September 2010
Dedicated toIrish youth and Irish culture

Misneach (English: Courage),[1] also known as Girl on Horse,[2] is an equestrian statue by John Byrne in Ballymun, a Northside suburb of Dublin, Ireland. The statue was commissioned as part of Ballymun Regeneration Limited's percent for art scheme Breaking Ground. It is the only equestrian statue in Dublin. It was unveiled in front of Trinity Comprehensive School on 17 September 2010, although it was originally intended to be placed at the proposed town centre on the former Ballymun Shopping Centre site, being relocated due to plans for a proposed Ballymun MetroLink station. The statue was cast from a mould of the Gough Monument, replacing the figure of Hugh Gough, 1st Viscount Gough with local teenager Tony Marie Shields. The statue has been read as subverting expectations that come with equestrian statues and reclaiming the monument, though some locals have criticised it as portraying a stereotypical image of Ballymun.

Background

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Hugh Gough, 1st Viscount Gough in 1850

Field Marshal Hugh Gough, 1st Viscount Gough, KP, GCB, GCSI, PC was born in 1779.[3] He took part in the British invasion of the Cape Colony in September 1795 during the French Revolutionary Wars, and was deployed with the 1st Battalion of the 87th to the West Indies, taking part in the expedition to Dutch Guiana in 1799.[4] Gough commanded the 2nd Battalion of his regiment at the Battle of Talavera in July 1809,[4] fought at the Battle of Barrosa, took part in the Siege of Tarifa in January 1812, the Battle of Vitoria in June 1813 and the Battle of Nivelle.[4] He led the assault at the Battle of Canton in May 1841, and having been promoted to the local rank of lieutenant general in India and in China on 18 June 1841,[5] he also led the assault at the Battle of Amoy in August 1841.[4] He commanded the British forces at the Battle of Chapu in May 1842 and at the Battle of Chinkiang in July 1842.[6] After the Treaty of Nanking, the British forces were withdrawn and he returned to India.[6] He was promoted to the local rank of full general in India on 3 March 1843.[7]In August 1843 Gough became Commander-in-Chief, India, and in December 1843 he led the British forces in action against the Mahrattas defeating them decisively at the conclusion of the Gwalior campaign.[6] He also commanded the troops at the Battle of Mudki in December 1845, at the Battle of Ferozeshah also in December 1845 and at the Battle of Sobraon in February 1846 during the First Anglo-Sikh War.[6]

Gough Monument in Phoenix Park
Gough Monument in Chillingham Castle, Northumberland
A horse standing infront of a regenerated Ballymun under construction

The Second Anglo-Sikh War started in 1848, and Gough took to the field commanding in person at the Battle of Ramnagar in November 1848 and at the Battle of Chillianwala in January 1849.[6] He was criticised for relying on frontal assault by infantry rather than using artillery and was replaced as commander-in-chief by Sir Charles Napier but, before news of his replacement had arrived, Gough achieved a decisive victory over the Sikhs in the Battle of Gujarat in February 1849.[6] He advanced in the peerage as Viscount Gough of Goojerat in the Punjab and of the City of Limerick on 4 June 1849.[8] He retired from active service later that year[9] and died at St. Helen's, his home in Booterstown, on 2 March 1869 and was buried in Stillorgan.[10]

John Henry Foley was commissioned to make a statue of Gough around 1868,[11] but died before its completion, leaving his pupil Thomas Brock to finish it.[12] The statue was previously located in Phoenix Park in Dublin, but after several attacks to the statue[13] and an explosion from the Irish Republican Army (IRA),[14] it was moved to the Royal Hospital Kilmainham.[15] It was later purchased by Rupert Guinness, 2nd Earl of Iveagh[16] and moved to its current location in Chillingham Castle in Northumberland,[17][18] where it was restored.[19]

In the 1960s, the Irish Government needed new housing to replace Georgian tenements in Dublin that were collapsing.[20][21] They decided to construct a prefabricated housing estate in the village of Ballymun in the city's outskirts, on land bought by the Dublin Corporation (later Dublin City Council (DCC)) from the Albert Agricultural College.[22][23] The housing estate contained a group of high rise tower blocks called the Ballymun Flats. Construction started in 1965[24] and was undertaken by a consortium of John Sisk and Son and Hadens-Cubitts, using the Balency et Schuul system for flats and the Lowton Cubitt system for houses.[25][26][25] The first tenants were relocated in 1966.[27] The flats were the first council houses with access to foreign piped television.[28] The housing project was completed in 1968,[29][30] with additional flats being built in 1969.[31]

Residents grew unhappy with the flats. Promises to build a swimming pool and playground went unfulfilled. The block only had one shopping centre, forcing tenants to buy necessities at shops ran out of containers.[32][33] Many residents dealt and used drugs at the flats.[34] People who lived in the housing estate faced prejudice and discrimination, and some employers refused to hire people that lived in council homes.[35] Historically, Ballymun has strong links to equestrianism and horses. Since the 1980s, a subculture of "urban cowboys" were a popular hobby among Ballymun youth. The Control of Horses Act passed in 1996, brought the subculture to near extinction. After the act was passed, locals often described themselves as having to choose between keeping the horses or selling them for drugs.[36]

In 1997, DCC set up the limited company Ballymun Regeneration Limited (BRL) to conduct a regeneration of the area.[37] As part of the regeneration, BRL commissioned the percent for art scheme Breaking Ground in 2001, launching it in February 2002.[38] Misneach was commissioned as part of Breaking Ground in 2006.[39][40][41] It was unveiled in front of Trinity Comprehensive School on 17 September 2010.[40] The sculpture was originally intended to be placed at the proposed town centre on the former Ballymun Shopping Centre site, however due to plans for a proposed Ballymun MetroLink station, the sculpture was relocated.[42] It is the first contemporary equestrian statue in Ireland,[43] and is the last surviving equestrian statue in Dublin, with the city having four equestrian statues in its past[44]—the Gough Monument (blown up in 1957),[14] the Equestrian statue of George I (sold to the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in 1937),[45] the Statue of George II (blown up in 1937),[46] and the Statue of William of Orange (blown up 1928).[47] The decision to display the work infront of Trinity Comprehensive may have been influenced by Philip Napier, who opted to display his work in locations that were meaningful, rather than displaying them in galleries which are viewed as more pristine.[48]

Design and symbolism

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Misneach's inscription

The statue depicts a 17-year-old Ballymun local, Toni Marie Shields, wearing an Adidas tracksuit on a military-style horse atop a marble podium.[49] The bronze statue was structured from a wax mould of the Gough Monument, with Hugh Gough, 1st Viscount Gough replaced with Shields.[50][18] Shields underwent laser scanning in London to make a computer-generated wax mould for the sculpture.[40] In September 2006, 20 Ballymun locals interested in the sculpture were brought to the Kill Equestrian Centre in Kildare to audition for it. Shields was chosen in 2007, on the grounds of posture and horsemanship, with the sculpture being based off a photograph of her riding a horse there.[50][51] The decision to depict her riding bareback was intended to represent Ballymun's equestrian traditions, with a female rather than a male rider chosen to represent the area's youth culture.[52][1][49] It was completed in England and shipped back to Ireland.[53]

According to Breaking Ground and John Byrne, the sculpture subverts the expectation typically associated with military imagery, replacing the controversial Gough with an ordinary person to convey a message of "motivation, youth and womanhood". The decision to have the rider be a local teenager wearing a tracksuit was intended to represent and celebrate Irish youth and culture. Speaking for the Irish Independent, Shields said she felt that "the statue was not of her, rather it was for all the young people of the area."[40][54][55]

Reception

[edit]

Some locals, including a Labour Party politician, consider the sculpture to be perpetuating a stereotype and an "unfair and subversive image of the people of Ballymun".[56] Dermot Bolger, writing for the Irish Daily Mail, said what made Misneach wonderful is its "sense of democracy and equality" in a time where there "might seem to be little to celebrate in Ireland".[57] Donal Fallon of the Irish Independent described the sculpture's depiction of an ordinary person in place of Gough as "reclaiming it for the people".[18] In her book Tell Everyone on This Train I Love Them, Maeve Higgins compared the statue to another equestrian statue depicting a teenager as the rider in Richmond, Virginia by Kehinde Wiley titled Rumors of War.[58]

In the book Irish Art 1920-2020: Perspectives on Change, Paula Murphy wrote that the sculpture subverts "all aspects of the traditional equestrian monument" except the horse and the bronze casting, with the reuse of the Foley/Gough horse serving to "return an element of the sculpture to Ireland".[1] Murphy also noted that the sculpture's move to Trinity Comprehensive School echoed the removal of the statue of Queen Victoria from Leinster House in 1948, when "carparking requirements rather than politics was offered as the scapegoat".[1] The book Art and Architecture of Ireland Volume III: Sculpture 1600-1900 considers the statue to be "participating in a long artistic tradition of modernizing earlier work", with the work having a "symbolic focus" for a specific part of Dublin, although not representing the entire city. The book also considers Byrne's decision to cast a local girl to be replacing Gough with a "new group that was young and without power".[59][60]

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 3 4 Murphy 2022, p. 195 "Byrne's sculpture would subvert all aspects of the traditional equestrian monument except in the use of the horse and the casting of the work in bronze. His decision to cast the Foley/Gough horse for the work served to return an element of the sculpture to Ireland. The rider for Byrne's horse – female rather than male – was to be a teenage girl, representing the youthful community that is Ballymun [..] Titled Misneach (Courage), the work was installed in Ballymun in 2010 not, as originally intended, on Main Street but in the grounds of Trinity Comprehensive School, and therefore not as public or prominent as intended. A proposed metro construction, which failed to materialise, was given as the reason – echoing the removal of the Queen Victoria monument from the grounds of Leinster House in 1948, when carparking requirements rather than politics was offered as the scapegoat"
  2. ↑ 2009a, p. 6 "John Byrne's 'Girl on Horse'"
  3. ↑ McAleavy, H (June 1952). "Two Documents of the First China War". The British Museum Quarterly. 17 (1). British Museum: 5. JSTOR 4422360. In September 1951 the Trustees bought from Miss Lucy Gough, of Blythebank, Duns, Berwickshire, two documents in the Chinese language forme the possession of Field-Marshal Lord Gough (1779-1869) who, as Hugh Gough, was British Commander-in-Chief in China from 1841-1842
  4. 1 2 3 4 Heathcote 1999, p. 148
  5. ↑ "No. 19989". The London Gazette. 18 June 1841. p. 1583.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Heathcote 1999, p. 149
  7. ↑ "No. 20201". The London Gazette. 3 March 1843. p. 732.
  8. ↑ "No. 20984". The London Gazette. 5 June 1849. p. 1832.
  9. ↑ "No. 21564". The London Gazette. 22 June 1854. p. 1931.
  10. ↑ Chichester, H. M. (2004). "Gough, Hugh, first Viscount Gough (1779–1869) in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004 ed.)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/11135. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  11. ↑ "Statue of Lord Gough". The Times. 15 October 1878. p. 8. Retrieved 5 April 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ "Our London". The Haddingtonshire Courier. 19 March 1875. p. 2. Retrieved 5 April 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ Clerkin, Paul. "1880 - Field-Marshal Gough Statue, Phoenix Park, Dublin". Archiseek. Archived from the original on 8 May 2026. Retrieved 24 May 2026.
  14. 1 2 Marshall 2022, p. 94 "Working with local young people, [John] Byrne recast the horse from the Gough monument blown up by the IRA in 1957 and replaced the conquering military leader with a teenage girl from the area"
  15. ↑ "Old iron soldier is set to ride home". Evening Herald. 10 September 1986. p. 23. Retrieved 6 April 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ "A last retreat for a fighting Irish Viscount". Evening Herald. 15 August 1986. p. 2. Retrieved 6 April 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ Baker, Alistair (17 June 1990). "Terrorists force statue of old soldier out of Ireland Home for a Hero!". Sunday Sun. p. 22. Retrieved 6 April 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. 1 2 3 Fallon, Donal (21 March 2025). "Kneecap on stage with a king? Nearly as strange as Nelson joining The Dubliners". Irish Independent. p. T24. Retrieved 4 April 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ↑ McGrath, Stephen (26 September 1986). "Gough statue may be returned". Irish Independent. p. 16. Retrieved 6 April 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ↑ "The Seven Towers, Ballymun". YouTube. Dublin City Libraries. 15 July 2009. Retrieved 9 May 2026.
  21. ↑ "The History of Social Housing in Inchicore". dublincity.ie. Dublin City Libraries. 16 June 2017. Archived from the original on 6 December 2025. Retrieved 14 June 2026.
  22. ↑ "£9m. Housing deal makes history". Irish Independent. 3 February 1965. p. 2. Retrieved 22 April 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ↑ "Minister to sign £10m. Ballymun contract today". Irish Independent. 2 February 1965. p. 6. Retrieved 22 April 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ↑ "Progress on housing project". Irish Independent. 10 January 1967. p. 5. Retrieved 30 April 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. 1 2 "£9,000,000 Dublin Plan (3,000 'system' houses, flats for Ballymun)". Irish Independent. 14 November 1964. p. 9. Retrieved 19 April 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ↑ Montague 2008, p. 52 "Two separate construction systems would be used for the buildings of the flats and the houses: the Balency et Schuul system for the flats and the Lowton-Cubitt system for the houses"
  27. ↑ "Ballymun house is 'gorgeous'". Evening Herald. 27 May 1966. p. 10. Retrieved 23 April 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  28. ↑ "Paying the TV 'Piper': Ballymun reception ingenuity". Evening Herald. 28 February 1968. p. 4. Retrieved 16 May 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  29. ↑ "Final hoist at Ballymun-Promise of shops soon". Evening Herald. 19 December 1968. p. 6. Retrieved 17 June 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  30. ↑ "Blaney sees £10m. Ballymun housing scheme completed". Irish Independent. 20 December 1968. p. 12. Retrieved 17 June 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  31. ↑ "541 houses built by local bodies in March". Irish Independent. 5 May 1969. p. 3. Retrieved 14 July 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  32. ↑ Power 1997, p. 242 "In 1966, when the first tenants moved in [..], the estate was pristine, with its gleaming white towers and 'spine' blocks [..] and its proud new inhabitants. followed. [..] Quickly the flats experienced above average turnover, as the big incentives to become an owner-occupier enticed away anyone with even modest means."
  33. ↑ McDonald 2000, p. 251 "In terms of facilities, this town, the size of Clonmel , had just one supermarket, two pubs, a part-time bank, and twenty four container shops (i.e. operating out of disused 40 foot containers"
  34. ↑ McDonald 2000, p. 251 "The only way out for too many young people in Ballymun was via drugs. At least a thousand of the tenants were drug addicts, one in six were unmarried mothers, a further 10% were deserted/separated wives, unemployment was reckoned to be 45%, and up to a third of the estate's population of 12,000 was on the waiting list for housing elsewhere"
  35. ↑ O'Donoghue, John (15 November 1968). "Public Housing Challenges". 7 Days. RTÉ. Archived from the original on 26 May 2026. Retrieved 26 May 2026 – via RTÉ Archives.
  36. ↑ O'Malley 2019, p. 175 "The local children's pastime and passion for horse trading and riding emerged in the 1980s, extending the legacy of the traveling community and traditional roles for horses in delivering fuel and milk to homes and businesses [..] After restrictive legislation via the Control of Horses Act in 1996, which affected concern for the welfare of horses and animal rights but in reality made the hobby prohibitive for young people who were already overlooked by the local authorities, journalist Fintan O'Toole described Ballymun's young "urban cowboys" as "a subculture struggling against extinction". Tensions between human and animal health, deprivation, joy, and the “elemental freedom” felt by young people on horseback, who often described themselves as having a choice between horses and drugs"
  37. ↑ Walsh, Paul (30 September 2011). "Regeneration without end in Ballymun". Magill. Retrieved 12 September 2026.
  38. ↑ 2009a, p. 23 "In 2001, [BRL] commissioned a per cent for art scheme for Ballymun [..] 'Breaking Ground' was launched in February 2002"
  39. ↑ "A percentage difference". Sunday Independent. 11 September 2011. p. 8-03. Retrieved 5 April 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  40. 1 2 3 4 O'Brien, Jason (18 September 2010). "Sculpture of tracksuit-clad rider is mane attraction". Irish Independent. p. T12. Retrieved 5 April 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  41. ↑ Pramaggiore 2015, p. 215 "The equestrian statue Misneach, commissioned as part of the Ballymun Regeneration project in 2006"
  42. ↑ Collins, Liam (23 December 2017). "Zozimus". Sunday Independent. p. 8-02. Retrieved 4 April 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  43. ↑ Marshall & Murray 2014, p. 375 "John Byrne unveiled the first equestrian statue in Ireland in modern times (Misneach, 2010, Ballymun); in true post-modern fashion, it represents local teenager Toni Marie Shields from Ballymun, rather than an Imperial general."
  44. ↑ Murphy 2022, p. 195 "Recognising that there were no longer any equestrian monuments in Dublin – there once were four – Byrne decided to create one for Ballymun"
  45. ↑ "Sculpture Trail" (PDF). University of Birmingham. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. [the Equestrian Statue of King George I] was sold to the Barber Institute in 1937
  46. ↑ Clerkin, Paul (23 March 2013). "1758 - Statue of George II, St. Stephen's Green, Dublin". Archiseek. Retrieved 12 September 2026.
  47. ↑ "William of Orange". Dublin City Council Libraries. Archived from the original on 18 December 2017. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
  48. ↑ Murphy 2025, p. 10 "Not only was Napier making use of found objects and sound to create his installation, he also chose to display the work in a non-gallery venue. Gauge was first exhibited in the Orchard Gallery, Derry, followed by display in a derelict house in the Bogside. By the close of the twentieth century several sculptors were choosing to dispense with the official display areas or 'white cube' galleries in favour of less pristine and more meaningful locations. This resulted in exciting developments in Community Art, most notably in Ballymun, Co. Dublin. Breaking Ground, a public art project which commenced in 2001, was part of the Ballymun Regeneration Programme."
  49. 1 2 O'Malley 2019, p. 375 "In another part of Dublin today, there is a larger- than- life bronze sculpture called Misneach on a marble podium depicting a teenage girl riding a horse bareback [..] Byrnes Misneach also makes reference to Ballymun's strong historical links with horses, which have long been company for humans in this once suburban, now urban landscape."
  50. 1 2 O'Cionnaith, Fiachra (11 March 2008). "Schoolgirl immortalised in statue". Evening Herald. p. 26. Archived from the original on 15 April 2026. Retrieved 4 April 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  51. ↑ 2009a, p. 6 "In September 2006, 20 girls from Ballymun were brought to [the KIll Equestrian Centre] to audition to be cast as the rider. On the grounds of posture and horsemanship, 16 year old Toni Marie Shields from Ballymun was chosen to be the new figure for the sculpture"
  52. ↑ Murphy 2022, p. 195 "Shown riding bareback, once a tradition among young people in Ballymun, she is portrayed in casual attire, wearing tracksuit and trainers"
  53. ↑ O'Malley 2019, p. 375 "Not without some irony, Byrne's Misneach was completed in England and returned to Ireland by boat."
  54. ↑ Phelan, Andrew (8 November 2008). "Breaking the mould: Artist says controversial sculpture of tracksuited horserider 'immortalises ordinary people'". The Herald. p. 14. Retrieved 5 April 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  55. ↑ Connor, Feehan; Riegel, Ralph (25 September 2021). "Men of stone: but women from history". Irish Independent. p. T22. Retrieved 5 April 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  56. ↑ Murphy 2022, p. 195 "This dignified piece of public sculpture, of and for the people, was thought by some, including a local Labour Party councillor, to be a stereotype, portraying an ‘unfair and subversive image of the people of Ballymun'"
  57. ↑ Bolger, Dermot (21 September 2010). "Ballymunderful!". Irish Daily Mail. p. 15. Archived from the original on 20 April 2026. Retrieved 5 April 2026.
  58. ↑ Higgins, Maeve (17 February 2022). "Maeve Higgins: Portraits of courage in Ireland and America". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 5 April 2026.
  59. ↑ Murphy 2025, p. 10 "John Byrne's Misneach (bronze, 2007–10) . Misneach – depicting a young girl riding bare-back on a horse – required that a local girl be selected from among her peers and her likeness cast in bronze. For the equestrian element, Byrne took a cast of John Henry Foley's horse that forms part of the Gough statue which had once stood in Dublin's Phoenix Park – thus participating in a long artistic tradition of modernizing earlier work"
  60. ↑ Murphy 2025, p. 505 "When John Byrne, a conceptual artist, put a cast of a girl from Ballymun, Dublin, on a replica of Lord Gough's horse, called it Misneach (Courage) and erected it in a central location in the newly built housing development in Ballymun in 2010, he was subverting the monumental tradition – replacing the old elite with a new group that was young and without power. He was also showing that sculpture can be a symbolic focus, but for a specific area rather than for the whole city"

Books

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