For 50 years, the traditional meeting place in the city centre for young lovers, friends or out-of-towners requiring a distinctive landmark was Clery’s clock, the timepiece hanging from O’Connell St’s most famous department store. Nowadays – and surely the ultimate mark of success – it’s the metal Spire that soars over the city, erected in 2001 as the standout example of the program of urban regeneration that has slowly transformed O’Connell St over the last 10 years.

The brainchild of London-based architect Ian Ritchie, it is apparently the highest sculpture in the world, but much like the Parisian reaction to the construction of the Eiffel Tower, Dubliners are divided as to its aesthetic value. Whatever its aesthetics, it’s an impressive bit of architectural engineering: from a base of only 3m in diameter, it soars more than 120m into the sky and tapers into a 15cm-wide beam of light and, for no reason other than the fact that it’s tall and shiny, we think it does the trick rather nicely. Which doesn’t stop Dubliners making fun of it, of course: among other names, we like ‘the erection in the intersection’, the ‘stiletto in the ghetto’, and the altogether brilliant ‘eyeful tower’.