The Spire of Dublin, officially the Monument of Light, is the slender stainless-steel needle that rises 120 metres from the middle of O'Connell Street, tapering from a three-metre base to a point barely wider than a hand. Completed in 2003, it stands on the spot once occupied by Nelson's Pillar, blown up by the IRA in 1966.
The tip is perforated and lit from within, so it glows faintly against the night sky, and the polished lower section reflects the bustle of the street around it. Dubliners have given it a string of irreverent nicknames -- the Stiletto in the Ghetto, the Spike -- but it serves as the city's most useful meeting point and the unmissable anchor of the northside boulevard.