Memories of Mount Street
The Girl Who Swings on a Georgian Lamp Post
Introduction
On Mount Street Crescent in Dublin 2, a bronze girl in a coat and boots swings from a rope tied to a Georgian lamp post, her body arched back, hair flying, coat billowing — pure joy frozen in bronze. She is one of the most playful and immediately loveable pieces of public art in Dublin, and most people who pass her simply smile and walk on without knowing her name.
Her official title is Memories of Mount Street. She was created by sculptor Derek A. Fitzsimons and unveiled in 1988 as part of Dublin's Millennium celebrations — the same year that gave the city Molly Malone on Grafton Street and the Meeting Place sculptures on Liffey Street.
She was commissioned by Ivor Fitzpatrick & Co Solicitors, whose offices are on Mount Street Crescent, as a gift to the area and to the city. A private commission for public joy — and it shows.
The Statue
The figure is a young girl, full of life and motion, swinging from a knotted rope attached to a traditional cast iron Dublin lamp post. Her coat is open, her feet barely touching the ground, her face turned upward. There is nothing monumental or commemorative about her — she is simply a child at play, caught mid-swing on a Georgian street corner.
It is exactly the kind of sculpture that makes a neighbourhood feel alive. Visitors photograph her. Children want to touch her. Adults smile involuntarily as they pass.
The piece sits on the corner of the crescent with St Stephen's Church — known locally as the Pepper Canister Church — visible behind her, its distinctive circular drum and copper dome forming a perfect backdrop. The combination of the swinging bronze figure, the Georgian lamp post, the cobbled crescent and the church beyond is one of the finest compositions in Dublin's public streetscape.
Dublin's Millennium Sculptures
Memories of Mount Street is part of a remarkable wave of public sculpture that arrived in Dublin in 1988, when the city celebrated its millennium year — marking a thousand years since the Viking settlement that would grow into the modern capital.
The millennium programme commissioned or inspired a series of bronze figures across the city, several of which have since become among Dublin's most beloved and recognised landmarks. Molly Malone on Grafton Street, the Meeting Place women on Liffey Street, and Memories of Mount Street all share that same year and that same civic impulse — a desire to mark Dublin's history with human figures rooted in the everyday life of the city.
While Molly Malone attracts the crowds and the cameras, Memories of Mount Street remains a quieter discovery — known to the people of the neighbourhood and to those who find her by chance on a walk through the Georgian southside.
Where to Find It
Mount Street Crescent, Dublin 2, at the corner junction near Pepper Canister Church. The statue stands on the pavement beside a traditional Dublin lamp post — you can't miss her once you're on the crescent.
Getting there: A short walk from Merrion Square, or from Grand Canal Street. The Green Luas to St Stephen's Green is the nearest stop, about ten minutes' walk through the Georgian streets.
Did You Know?
The Pepper Canister Church visible behind the statue is the Church of St Stephen, built in 1824. Its distinctive circular drum tower with a small copper dome gave it the nickname that has stuck ever since.
Mount Street Crescent was laid out as part of Dublin's Georgian expansion in the early nineteenth century and remains one of the best preserved Georgian streetscapes in the city.
The statue was commissioned by a local solicitors firm as a gift to the area — one of the relatively rare examples of a private business funding genuinely public art for the community rather than for corporate display.
Nearby Statues
You're in excellent statue territory here. Birdy by Rowan Gillespie perches on the ledge of Crescent Hall just steps away. Patrick Kavanagh sits on his bench along the Grand Canal a short walk south. George Russell (AE) stands in Merrion Square to the north. We have pages for all of them.
