I heard an item on the RTE news telling of some enterprising person who had secured a two-foot long branch from one of the London Plane trees that was cut down in O’Connell Street and offered same for sale on the internet!

This brought to mind a tale I had heard from Noel, a friend of mine, in the 70s about a request made by the head of a Los Angeles law firm to Dan O’Herlihy, the Irish film star and director, some years back.

My friend Noel at the time worked for Mercedes Benz in Dublin and on one occasion he was sent to Dan O’Herlihy’s house in Blackrock to troubleshoot his imported Mercedes Benz car, which had just arrived from LA.

When Dan got into the car to go for a drive the car would not start. Apparently, it had been in storage for a long time.

When Noel arrived at Dan’s House, he found that the car was an absolutely magnificent 1938/39 coupe, just like the Mercs which both Hitler and Himmler enjoyed during their reign of power in Germany many years earlier.

It had large fenders, long running boards, left-hand drive and California plates. Noel made a list of the work which needed to be done and informed Dan that he would have to tow the car into the workshop for repairs.

Closing the garage doors, Dan invited Noel in for coffee and a chat. During their chat Dan asked Noel’s advice about another matter. “You come across to me as a most astute young man. Perhaps you could help me with a request I have just had that could save me $400. Could you tell me how I could find out where the rubble from Nelson’s Pillar was dumped as I would like to secure a small piece of it for a friend of mine.”

Noel was astounded and wondered if he had heard right. Seeing the look on Noel’s face, Dan smiled and handed Noel a letter which made everything crystal clear. The letter was from a law firm in LA called Goldberg and it appeared that they had represented Dan on a number of minor traffic offences in LA and attached was their bill for $400. However, the letter stated that if Dan could send them a small stone from the rubble of Nelson’s Pillar which could be used as a paper weight he could forget about the bill!

Noel found this request hard to believe, but Dan assured him that the Pillar explosion was big news in the US a few years previously and such a paper weight would be an object of some interest.

“Well,” said Noel, “you have asked the right man. I know for sure that a part of that statue lies in a corporation yard off Cork Street in Dublin, but why bother? Why don’t you just nip out to the garden, select a nice stone and post it to LA. Mr Goldberg will never know the difference!”

Dan exploded with laughter and, spluttering, he spilt his coffee on the front of his shirt. “My God, man,” he said to Noel, “you’re a genius!”

Moments later Noel took his leave of that lovely kind Irish actor and never saw him again and with Dan now dead and buried he will never know if Mr Goldberg received his paper weight from Dan’s garden in Blackrock or from the Corporation yard off Cork Street!

Right: Nelson’s Pillar in its glory days (c.1948).