On Thursday 16th of December on O’Connell Street in Dublin at 2.40pm, the Anna Livea made a return visit to her old home and bathing spot. Onlooker’s and members of the media stared on in disbelief as she sat proudly on the back of an open flat truck strapped in and every bit as brazen as she had always been.
She was originally placed there in 1988, sculpted in bronze by Eamonn O’Doherty to mark Dublin’s first millennium. She wascrafted in the image of the spirit of the Liffey.
The people of Dublin took to Anna and she was one of the more popular sights in the city. Sometimes on really hot day’s people would take off their shoes and stockings and let the water cool themselves down or jump in beside her.
Unfortunately, towards the end of her tenure on O’Connell Street, poor Anna began to fall in with a bad crowd. She began to develop a bad reputation for herself and was known by new names such as “Floozie in the Jacuzzi” and the somewhat worse “Wh-ore in the Se-wer”! Too many people had decided to have a drink with her and the all night socialising was beginning to take its toll. The next morning she would awake with empty cans beside her and it wasn’t unusual to see bits of burgers from an attack of the munchies on the way home from Dorans. Her once pristine bath had become a haven for cigarette butts, another new nasty habit. Seemingly, live in the city centre had changed Anna completely, no longer the noble spirit of the Liffey but nothing but an auld can drinking, fag smoking, burger chewing floozie.
The Corporation who had to clean on a regular basic must of felt it was time for her to pack her bath and leave, time for an eviction but where to next for poor Anna? It was anyone’s guess. Been a statue didn’t improve her chances of getting new accommodation.
She was kicked out of her original home in 2001. Poor old Floozie has been stored in some kind of coffin ever since. Broken into smaller pieces and forgotten about, save for one person, her creator Eamonn O ‘Doherty. In fact, she is off now to have some work done and towards the end of January 2011, she will be taken to her new location beside the Liffey in the Croppy Acre where she will be there for all to see this time without the remnants of a live well lived around her.
Looking at her yesterday on the lorry she actually looked a lot bigger in fact she looked huge maybe this was hid with all the water, the truck left again shortly after 3.20pm yesterday making this a quick stop over to see her old home.
Maybe they could move this spire say the middle of Ireland and turn it in to a windmill or something useful and bring Anna back home.
This article was originally published in:
Fountain News Digital – December 2010 (Issue 2)
We are re-publishing all articles from our past newsletter, Fountain News Digital, and you can view all completed newsletters here. There were nine issues published in total between 2010 and 2012.
Timeline of our local news services (1994-2013)
Hashtags: #Christmas 
