Cork City Council to consider tiny statue honouring mosquito linked to Oliver Cromwell’s death
A statue to commemorate the mosquito that may have killed Oliver Cromwell by infecting him with malaria in Cork is to be considered by the Cork City Council.
It would be “the world’s smallest public statue,” and could be erected on an empty plinth outside Cork City Hall, Green Party councillor Oliver Moran said.
Moran suggested erecting the statue as part of Cork City Council’s public art scheme.
He has proposed that Cork City Council “erect a statue to the mosquito or midge that bit Oliver Cromwell during the siege of the city, later causing his death through ‘Cork fever’ (malaria), and that this statue shall be ‘the world’s smallest public statue’.”
Oliver Cromwell is known for his brutal military campaign in Ireland in the 1600s.
Speaking to the , Cllr Moran said: “Whether the midge that bit Oliver Cromwell is a real thing, or a legend or a folk story from Cork, I don’t know.
“But we can be fairly sure he died of malaria and that he contracted it on his campaigns. That could have been in Cork.”
Moran said the novelty of having the smallest statue in the world could attract visitors to Cork.
He said artists have been sending him drawings they made in the past of the famous midge, including some that were commissioned.
Cork City Council has been developing a public art strategy.
