Birdy
The Hidden Figure Above Mount Street Crescent
Introduction
On Mount Street Crescent in Dublin 2, perched high on the portico ledge of Crescent Hall, a small bronze figure crouches and looks out over the Georgian streetscape below. Knees drawn in, alert, watchful — she is easy to miss if you don't know to look up. Most people who walk this quiet crescent every day have never noticed her.
Her name is Birdy, and she is one of the most quietly significant pieces of public sculpture in Dublin.
Created by Rowan Gillespie — the sculptor behind the Famine Memorial on Custom House Quay — Birdy is the starting point of an entire body of work exploring female freedom, liberation and self-discovery. She sits above the street like a secret the city has been keeping, waiting to be found.
The Statue
Birdy is a small bronze female figure, nude, crouching on the ledge of the Crescent Hall portico on Mount Street Crescent. She is positioned high above street level, which is part of what makes her so easy to miss — and so rewarding to find. Her posture is contained, almost coiled, as if she is gathering herself before something significant happens.
She is the first sculpture in Gillespie's series titled "A Woman" — a sequence of works that traces a journey from stillness and uncertainty through to full liberation, with the final figures in the series depicted in flight. Birdy is the beginning of that journey. Gillespie himself described her as the seed from which the entire series grew — the earliest expression of a woman finding her confidence and her freedom.
The Story Behind the Work
Rowan Gillespie is Dublin-born and internationally recognised, best known for the Famine Memorial figures on Custom House Quay — those gaunt, hollow-eyed bronze men and women walking toward the emigrant ships, which have become one of the most visited and most photographed pieces of public art in Ireland. He also created Aspiration, a nude female figure that scaled the Treasury Building on Grand Canal Street until the building was redeveloped by Google.
Birdy grew out of a commission Gillespie received to create a sculpture for the Revenue office in Sandymount. The model for that related work — a piece titled Awakening — was a waitress Gillespie spotted in a restaurant in Glasthule. He was struck by her natural, unselfconscious energy and asked her to pose. When she arrived for the first session and stepped out from behind a screen to pose, she threw her arms wide open, fists clenched — a spontaneous, defiant gesture that said Here I am. That energy, that moment of unguarded self-declaration, fed directly into the entire series.
Birdy came first. Gillespie saw her as the quiet precursor to that declaration — a woman on the threshold, not yet in flight, but already beginning to stir.
The series progresses through increasingly liberated figures — women stretching, reaching, ascending — until the final sculptures in which women are depicted fully airborne, entirely free. Birdy is where that journey begins, crouched on her ledge above a Georgian Dublin street, watching the world below.
Where to Find It
Crescent Hall, Mount Street Crescent, Dublin 2. Look up at the portico above the entrance — Birdy is perched on the ledge at first floor level. She's easy to miss at street level so stand back and scan the building front.
Mount Street Crescent is a short walk from Merrion Square and the Grand Canal, in the heart of Dublin's Georgian southside.
Getting there: From Merrion Square, walk south along Merrion Street and turn onto Mount Street Upper. Mount Street Crescent curves off to the left. Green Luas to St Stephen's Green is the nearest stop, about ten minutes' walk.
Photography tip: Step well back from the building to get Birdy in frame — you'll need distance to capture her position on the ledge. A zoom lens or phone zoom works well. Late afternoon light catches the bronze beautifully.
Did You Know?
Rowan Gillespie's Famine Memorial on Custom House Quay is one of the most replicated pieces of Irish public sculpture in the world. A second set of the figures stands in Toronto, where it was unveiled in 2007 to commemorate the Irish who emigrated to Canada during the Great Famine.
Birdy is genuinely hidden in plain sight — she has been sitting above Mount Street Crescent for decades and the majority of people who pass beneath her daily have no idea she is there. Finding her feels like a small act of discovery.
The name Birdy reflects both her perched position and the themes of the series — the idea of a creature poised between earth and sky, between stillness and flight.
Gillespie's model for the related Awakening sculpture was a waitress who had no idea he was a sculptor when they first met. He spotted her energy while dining out and wrote her a handwritten letter with early sketches to explain his idea. She sat for him six or seven times.
Nearby Statues
Mount Street Crescent puts you within easy reach of some of Dublin's finest public art. Patrick Kavanagh sits on his bench along the Grand Canal just minutes away. Oscar Wilde reclines in Merrion Square. And while you're on Mount Street, look out for the Swing Girl on the crescent — another bronze that stops people in their tracks.
