Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Nelson's Pillar

Nelson&#39;s Pillar

 * This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page. 

The result was: scheduled for Today's featured article/April 24, 2016 by — Chris Woodrich (talk) 23:31, 2 April 2016 (UTC)



Nelson's Pillar  was a large granite column capped by a statue of Horatio Nelson, erected in the centre of O'Connell Street,   Dublin, Ireland in 1809. In March 1966, it was severely damaged by explosives, and was subsequently demolished by the Irish Army. The monument was erected after the euphoria following Nelson's victory  at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. It proved a popular tourist attraction but provoked aesthetic and political controversy, and there were frequent  calls for it to be removed, or replaced with a memorial to an Irish hero. Nevertheless it remained, even after Ireland became an independent Free State in 1922, and a republic in 1948. Although influential literary figures defended the Pillar on historical and cultural grounds, its destruction just before the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising was, on the whole, well received by the Irish public. The police could not identify those responsible; when in 2010 a former republican activist admitted planting the explosives, he was not charged. The Pillar was finally replaced in 2003 with the Spire of Dublin. Relics of the Pillar are found in various Dublin locations, and its memory is preserved in numerous works of Irish literature.
 * Most recent similar article(s): Nothing similar recently
 * Main editors: Brianboulton and Carcharoth
 * Promoted: 30 March 2016
 * Reasons for nomination: 24 April 2016 is the actual centerary of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, widely celebrated over Easter last weekend. It seems appropriate to run a Dublin-related article on this anniversary.
 * Support as nominator. Brianboulton (talk) 23:36, 30 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Tentative support: 24 April, the Easter Rising date really has nothing specific to do with Nelson's Pillar itself as it was hardly damaged during that week of fighting all around it. It might be better to keep it for the anniversary of its opening date 21 October. We have just missed the other two significant dates. ww2censor (talk) 10:37, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Since I started work on this expansion I have widely canvassed my intention to nominate this for 24 April; it is the Rising centenary I'm interested in, not the Pillar's opening date which is of little historical importance. There are no other Dublin-related featured articles that can be shown as TFA on this date and I am hoping that  a relatively neutral  topic will allow that anniversary to be marked without animosity. Brianboulton (talk) 16:38, 31 March 2016 (UTC)


 * Support - I am not co-nom for this request, but I was co-nom on the FAC, which is probably the same thing anyway. Agree with Brianboulton's comments above. Carcharoth (talk) 20:16, 1 April 2016 (UTC)