QV outside the QVB

Written on the plaque of this statue outside the Queen Vic building: "At the request of the city of Sydney, this statue of Queen Victoria was presented by the government and people of Ireland in a spirit of goodwill and friendship. Until 1947 it stood in front of Leinster house, Dublin, the seat of the Irish Parliament. Sculptured by John Hughes."

As I stood here looking at this controversial towering statue of the small Queen I wondered if the residents of Sydney were pleased with their gift from Ireland after they had happily removed it from their own soil.

I did some googling and found out: "Surprisingly, she escaped being blown up in Ireland. Many were horrified that a statue of Queen Victoria could still be standing outside the front of the parliament of the Irish Free State. By 1947 they had had enough and she was unceremoniously removed and thrown into the main courtyard into the mud. There she sat year after year, with nobody quite knowing what to do with her. Luckily, Australia came to the rescue, in 1983, when the Sydney City Council began a search for a statue of Queen Victoria to be erected outside of the QVB. Imagine the luck of the Irish when they got wind of this. A quick search located the rather neglected queen in the small town of Daingean (don't ask me how it ended up there). The Republic of Ireland were so happy to off load the statue, they decided to give it to the people of Sydney in the spirit of "goodwill". In the late 1980's she left Ireland for good and arrived for a fresh start in Australia, to mark Sydney's 200th anniversary, in 1987. So now she sits high on her throne, looking down on the people of Sydney, being relatively ignored, as if she was still in Ireland."