Monument as Chapel

To state the obvious the original idea behind the erection of a monument was to commemorate someone who was held in high esteem by the committee that raised the funds to do it. That sense of commemoration may no longer apply or may be in contention. Taking away the monument does not make the history behind it not to have happened. For a populace that is largely ignorant of history the monument may be a history lesson in stone. Take Cecil Rhodes away and the fact that he, or the imperialist past of Britain ever existed may simply enter into general amnesia. Now the school children of Oxford will be denied the reminder that there was a man who had a country named after him, Rhodesia.

In Ireland we have a statue in Fairview Park of Sean Russell chief of staff of the I.R.A. who died on board a U boat on his way to Galway from Germany. He was buried at sea with full military honours by the Nazis. Here is a little excerpt from the Wikipedia article about him:

Arriving in Berlin in May 1940, Russell was informed of Operation Mainau, the plan to parachute Hermann Görtz into Ireland. Russell was asked to brief Görtz on Ireland before his departure that night, but missed his takeoff from the Kassel-Fritzlar airfield.
Accorded the privileges of a diplomat and provided with a villa and a chauffeur-driven car, Russell's liaison officer while in Nazi Germany was SS-Standartenfuhrer Edmund Veesenmayer.[7] At this time the IRA was extremely pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic [8] Veesenmayer indicated particular interest that the IRA had no clear idea of what form an Irish government would take in the event of a German victory. [9]
By 20 May 1940, Russell began training with Abwehr in the use of the latest German explosive ordnance at the training area for the Brandenburg Regiment, the 'Quenzgut', where he observed trainees and instructors working with sabotage materials in a field environment. As he received explosives training, his return to Ireland with a definite sabotage objective was planned by German Army Intelligence. His total training time with German Intelligence was over three months.

(Veesenmeyer was responsible for the death of 300,000 Hungarian Jews for which he got 20 years, but was released after 10 thanks to the interventions of the U.S. High Commission)
Now you might say that's all old history - but it isn't. The present leader of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the I.R.A., Mary Lou McDonald in 2003 spoke at a rally (at the statue) to commemorate him. Sinn Fein were in line for being part of the government due to a hung parliament but didn't make it. The statue played its part in reminding us of who they are and what they stand for.