A once controversial sculpture the 'Monument to the Unknown Woman Worker' is unveiled in Belfast.
Following a competition, Cork born artist Louise Walsh was originally commissioned by the Northern Ireland Department of the Environment to design a stature. The artwork was to be part of a redevelopment of the area once known as Belfast’s red-light district.
The Belfast City Council brief required the sculptor to design a figurative piece based on a drawing of two women. Louise Walsh felt this brief was offensive to women,
So I decided to try and turn around the brief.
Her solution the ‘Monument to the Unknown Woman Worker’ plays on the idea of the ‘Monument to the Unknown Soldier’. Cast in bronze it features two working-class women with symbols of women's work set into the surfaces. The work commemorates the countless unknown women who have shaped Belfast.
Criticised for being a monument to prostitution, the statue became a major topic of controversy. Ultimately this led Belfast City Council to vote to withdraw funding for the work.
A private developer recommissioned the sculpture and its official unveiling takes place on a site outside of Great Victoria Train station beside the much-bombed Europa Hotel.
High Sheriff of Belfast Jim Walker of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), once opposed to the statue attends the unveiling. He now understands the statue portrays Belfast’s unknown woman workers,
Who worked, who cleaned, who scrubbed, who actually went out and earned a living.
With this knowledge he is happy to endorse the artwork.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 8 June 1993. The reporter is Brendan Wright.
