Monument to the Unknown Women Workers

 

Up in Belfast a while back there was time for a proper look at this bronze sculpture outside the train station.  It is by Louise Walsh and was put up in 1992 beside the Europa Hotel.

The Monument to the Unknown Women Workers apparently had a lot of controversy around it  - I always thought it was a tribute to the Millies - Belfast was built on the mills and all the women who worked there - Belfast girls are still - called Millies - but apparently this was intended to be a tribute to the ladies of the night who congregated at Amelia Street across the road, but the artist decided that a wider tribute to the unpaid women workers was more appropriate and the original planners decided against it.  

The Crown Bar beside Amelia Street, the former red light district of Belfast

The statue stands across the road from the Crown Bar, one of Belfast's most iconic places of interest - an original gin palace which still serves great food.   Inside, the bar is laid out in booths which would have been used by the ladies who congregated in Amelia Street on the corner. 

One of the women is an office worker with quotes about equal pay and various office acroutements attached to her

The second is a mother with the trappings of motherhood, babyhood and the home. 

There's a real mixed bag of comments on Trip Advisor which, apart from Wikipedia,  was the only place I could find any information about this - some people thought they were ugly and in the wrong place.

I think they're fabulous. 

The sculpture was commissioned in the late 80s by the Department of the Environment and after it was dropped a private client recommissioned it in 1992.