Daingean
Statue of Queen Victoria, Sydney took place in which location in Mar 1980?
Statue of Queen Victoria , Sydney The Statue of Queen Victoria , currently in Sydney , New South Wales , Australia , was made by John Hughes in 1908 and was originally located in Dublin . Made of bronze , it is situated on the corner of Druitt and George Street in front of the Queen Victoria Building . It was the last royal statue to have been erected in Ireland . Sculpture . The Queen toured Ireland in April 1900 , prompting the Royal Dublin Society to propose a national monument to her . Her death nine months later spurred a second burst of enthusiasm . John Hughes , instructor in Modelling at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art , was commissioned to create the statue and moved his studio to Paris to cast the work . It was his most important commission to date . Almost a decade later , it was unveiled in Dublin , Ireland , in the enclosed courtyard of Leinster House on 17 February 1908 . At a ceremony with 1000 troops on parade , the Lord Lieutenant declared we are assembled here to dedicate this noble work of art to the perpetual commemoration of a great personality and a great life . The statue shows an effort to portray Victoria Regina as the Irish Queen rather than the British Sovereign . She is seated in a low chair rather than an elaborate throne , allowing the artist to contain the figure within a sphere rather than as a towering pillar . ( Other seated examples place her on a high throne. ) And she wears a simple coronet rather than the royal or imperial crown...Moreover , the statue portrayed her as the Sovereign Head of the Most Illustrious Order of St Patrick , Irelands order of chivalry dating from 1783 . The star on her left breast , and the pendant badge , feature shamrocks , crowned harps , and St Patricks Cross . The St Patrick reference probably backfired . It confirmed Irelands colonial subordination . Round her neck the chain alternates the red and white roses of England . The statue sat atop a portland stone column , also designed by Hughes , with three sculptural groups to be placed below – Fame , Hibernia at Peace and Hibernia at War . This last group was also known as Erin and the Dying Soldier and referred to the loyalty demonstrated by Irish soldiers in the Boer War . Location . Ireland . In 1922 , 14 years after the statues installation , Leinster House had become the seat of the Irish parliament , the Oireachtas , and nationalistic sentiment disapproved of having a British queen celebrated in such a location . The statue had by now been given the nickname The auld bitch by Irish writer James Joyce . In August 1929 The Irish Times reported that discussions were under way to remove the statue “on the basis that its continued presence there is repugnant to national feeling , and that , from an artistic point of view , it disfigures the architectural beauty of the parliamentary buildings.” It was removed from its original location in July 1948 and replaced with a carpark . It was transported by lorry to the Royal Hospital Kilmainham and , along with the associated three sculptural groups , was placed in a courtyard and left , developing a patina . The hospital had also been a proposed site for the parliament , and was used as a storage location for property belonging to the National Museum of Ireland . It is now the Irish Museum of Modern Art . Attempts to send the sculpture to London , Ontario did not succeed as neither the Canadian nor Irish governments wished to pay the cost of transport . In February 1980 the statue was transferred to a yard behind a disused childrens reformatory at Daingean , County Offaly . The associated sculptures from the base of the statue are currently in the collection of Dublin Castle . Australia . In the mid-1980s , the iconic Queen Victoria Building in central Sydney was undergoing major renovations after decades of disuse , and appropriate public art was being sought for the entrance . Neil Glasser , Director of Promotions for the company undertaking the renovations ( Singapores Ipoh Gardens Ltd ) , travelled to several former British colonies in the hope of finding a statue . After a considerable amount of sleuthing , the statue , sitting in long grass behind the reformatory , was rediscovered and proposed to be moved to Australia . In order to obtain approval , Glasser contacted John Teahan , the Director of the National Museum of Ireland , and Sydneys Lord Mayor contacted the Irish Ambassador in Canberra . In August 1986 Fine Gael Taoiseach , Garret FitzGerald , authorised that the statue be given to Australia on loan until recalled . Subsequently , declassified cabinet papers showed that the plan was opposed by the then finance minister John Bruton ( later to be Taoiseach ) , as well as Teahan , on the basis that it represented the work of an Irish artist and ...representative of one of the many traditions of Irish history . The statue was transported by sea to Australia that year , restored in Sydney , and installed at its present location 43 years after it had last been on display . Despite heavy rain an unveiling ceremony took place on Sunday 20 December 1987 overseen by Eric Neal , Chief Commissioner of Sydney , and Dermot Brangan , first secretary at the Irish embassy to Australia . The irony of the British Queen being transported to Australia by ship was not lost on the Irish media . In the days before the unveiling the embassy and the Daily Telegraph newspaper received anonymous threats of violence and protest about the propriety of an Irish government giving a statue of Victoria as a gift . A second statue nearby is of the Queens favourite pet , a Skye Terrier named Islay , begging above a wishing well on behalf of the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children . At a cost of $10,000 , Sydney sculptor Justin Robson modelled the bronze work from an 1843 sketch by the Queen . The location of the statue is actually to disguise the ventilation shaft for the new carpark underneath the renovated building . The wishing well also includes a poem telling the story of Islay which will be specially translated into Braille , four proverbs highlighting the morality of giving in six different languages , and a piece of stone from Blarney Castle , Ireland . Since 1998 , a recorded request for donations , supposedly being spoken by Islay , has been played at regular intervals from hidden loudspeakers . The recording says , Because of the many good deeds Ive done for deaf and blind children , I have been given the power of speech , and then expresses thanks for donations . It is voiced by local radio personality John Laws and concludes with two barks , also by Laws .