New statue of Sean Russell ‘still contentious’

CONTROVERSY surrounds a new statue of IRA chief of staff Sean Russell, erected in Dublin this week to replace an earlier monument damaged by those protesting against the republican’s links to the Nazis.

The solid bronze statue was put in place on Wednesday and replaced a smaller stone structure which had been decapitated in 2005.

The statue in Fairview Park shows Russell, who died on board a German U-boat in 1940, dressed in a trench coat and hat.