In 1931, a Limerick Memorial Committee was established to fundraise for a monument on Sarsfield Bridge in Limerick city to honour those who died in the Easter Rising. The sculptor Albert Power (1881-1945), who was invited to design the monument, submitted his proposal in November 1936. A plaster model of the memorial was prepared in 1937. Construction began in 1938 with a view to unveiling the statue on the 25th anniversary of the Easter Rising in 1941. However, the outbreak of the Second World War, the death of Albert Power and a shortage of funds stalled the project, and it was not until 1949 that a renewed effort for the completion of the memorial was made. It was finished by the sculptor’s son James Power (1918-2009) and unveiled on Sunday 27 May 1956.

The memorial depicts Edward Daly standing with a pistol in his hand, and Con Colbert in a crouching position cutting the chains from the female figure of Erin. At the base of the statue Thomas Clarke is depicted pointing at a plaque containing the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. Inscribed on another plaque are the names of the 16 men who were executed during May 1916, and those of 65 others who lost their lives as a consequence of the Easter Rising.

“Who would not rejoice, that the struggles, the blood, the suffering, and the Heroic efforts of Ireland’s sons, have not been in vain”

John Daly, Portland Prison, to John Crowe, 15 June 1893