Browne-Clayton Monument

Freestanding monument, erected 1886, on a square plan. Repositioned, ----. Damaged, 2016. Restored and repositioned, 2018. Set in landscaped grounds.

An abbreviated "Triumphal Column"-style monument erected by Eleanor Daubeny (née Browne-Clayton) (d. 1896) representing an important component of the later nineteenth-century built heritage of New Ross (cf. 15703510). NOTE: The monument, and the accompanying gift of copies of Saint John's Gospel, caused offence to the chairman of the town commissioners who accused Mrs. Daubney 'of sending over poisonous stuff in the shape of Protestant tracts…calculated to wound Catholic feeling' (The Denbighshire Press 31st July 1886). Sixty copies of the gospel were returned to sender, along with a curt cover letter, and proposals were made to erase an offending inscription – "IF ANY MAN THIRST LET HIM COME UNTO ME AND DRINK" – and replace the harp with a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The monument, commemorating Lieutenant-General Robert Browne-Clayton (1771-1845) of Carrickbyrne Lodge (see 15703515), originally enjoyed a prominent position opposite the town hall on Quay Street but, for a time symbolically overshadowed by the later 1798 Monument (see 15605038), was subsequently moved to Irish Town and, after a collision (2016), was moved to Pearse Park.