[The following passage comes from an article in the September 1878 issue of the The Graphic. — George P. Landow]
ublin owes its statue of Grattan, one of Foley’s choicest achievements, to Mr. A. M. Sullivan, M.P., that gentleman having handed over 300l. collected for a testimonial to himself, as the nucleus of a fund for the erection of a memorial of the Irish Senator. Henry Grattan was born in Dublin, for which city his father was Recorder and Member of Parliament, in 1746. He was “short in stature, and unprepossessing in appearance. His arms were disproportionately long. His walk was a stride. With a person swaying like a pendulum, and an abstracted air, he seemed always in thought how strange it seems that a mind so replete with grace and symmetry, and power and splendour, should have been allotted such a dwelling for its residence. ... It was the victory of mind over matter.”
The Irish Parliament in recognition of Grattan’s services to his native land generously voted him a vote of 100,000l. Of this, however, he only accepted 50,000l., and this sum he bequeathed on trust to the citizens of Dublin in case of failure of issue. [178]
Bibliography
“Dublin Illustrated.” The Graphic (17 August 1878): 169-81. Internet Archive online version of a copy in the University of Illinois Library. Web. 14 August 2018.
Last modified 14 August 2018