I was lucky enough to be asked to contribute a story to Storymap, which is a great project aiming to capture Dublin through its stories. Previously, we featured Shane MacThomais’ excellent contribution on the UVF man buried in Glasnevin for example, and there are stories on everything from street characters like Bang Bang to the ghosts that inhabit the Jervis Centre.
For me, there was only one story to tell, and that is the story of Vonolel, the loyal charger and friend of Field Marshall Earl Roberts. A small white arab pony, of Indian stock, he is buried in Dublin today. We first featured the story of Vonolel back in June 2010, and since then several people have got in touch to say they’ve paid him a visit. Next time you’re in the grounds of the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham, why not do the same?
Congratulations Donal on your telling of the story of Vonolel.
Storymap will soon cover all of Dublin.
My own recent telling of the story of The Dollacher is on Storymap also.
It is one of the stories from my forthcoming book Dublin Folk Tales http://www.dublinfolktales.com
Brendan Nolan
Dublin and proud of It.
Great stuff Donal, I work close enough to there so will be able to entertain visiting Americans with the story.
Collins Barracks have an exhibition at the moment about another Irish war horse – Dickie Bird. His skeleton is in the exhibition, unearthed in Clancy Barracks by archaeologists before current building work started.
This is the link to the Dolocher video
Great Video DF. I think you deserve a Limited Edition Dublin Horse Calendar for that!
[…] “To Dublin’s war horse, Vonolel!” « Come here to me!. […]
the gough monument in phoenix has an interesteing history.pointlessly destroyed like nelsons pillar,woulsd have been better left there as a symbol of misconceived gratification and false adornment.didn’t it’s creator kill himself after getting the details of the sculpture wrong???
I heard the story about the statue over the years from various people. The story goes that the sculptor committed suicide after finishing the statue when he realised he’d left out the horses tongue. The problem is the statue of Lord Gough is by John Henry Foley and as far as I know he died in London of natural causes. It seems to be a myth that grew up in Dublin. From a distance at least it looks like the horse has no tongue.
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[…] My own earlier contribution to the Storymap series features along the route, in the form of the story of Vonolel, a famous and honoured horse. We’ve posted that here on the site before. […]