Molly Courage

This is the figure of Courage from the monument to Daniel O’Connell at the southern end of O’Connell St, Dublin. The monument was designed and sculpted by John Henry Foley and unveiled in 1882. 

The four winged figures at the base, Patriotism, Courage, Eloquence and Fidelity, represent qualities attributed to O’Connell. The bullet hole in Courage’s right breast is said to have been inflicted during the 1916 Rising. 

I imagine her response in a prose poem, in the style of Joyce’s Molly Bloom. Called “Molly Courage”, it was first published in Limerick Writers Centre’s 1916-2016: An Anthology of Reactions. 

This poem will be included in my next collection, Troubles, to be published by Revival Press, Limerick in March 2020.

Irish poet, Paula Meehan, has written a poem in the voice of the figure of Fidelity from the same O’Connell monument.