An apt entry this time, coinciding with the recent conclusion of the Five Lamps Arts Festival this weekend. The Five Lamps is a well known Dublin landmark, situated at the junction of five streets: Seville Place, Amiens Street, Portland Row, Killarney Street and North Strand Row. Opinion is divided as to whether the five lamps themselves represent these streets or if they symbolise five great battles fought by the British in India in the colonial nineteenth century. The latter seems likely, as the lamp post was originally erected as a monument to General Henry Hall, a Galwegian who served in the British Army in India.
Famously, it's said that any one born north of the Five Lamps is not a true Dubliner - which seems a little harsh as it lies less then a kilometre from the Liffey! Originally the lamp post incorporated a fountain feature, but this has long since been removed.
The Five Lamps survived the nearby North Strand bombings of Dublin in 1941 thankfully unscathed.
References:
WIL 13[8], National Library
