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Father Pat Noise is a fictitious Roman Catholic priest, described on a hoax commemorative plaque installed by two brothers on O'Connell Bridge in Dublin, Ireland. The full text of the plaque reads:
THIS PLAQUE COMMEMORATES
FR. PAT NOISE
ADVISOR TO PEADAR CLANCEY.
HE DIED UNDER SUSPICIOUS
CIRCUMSTANCES WHEN HIS
CARRIAGE PLUNGED INTO THE
LIFFEY ON AUGUST 10TH 1919.
ERECTED BY THE HSTI
The hoaxers installed it in 2004, and owned up in May 2006 after the plaque was brought to the attention of Dublin City Council by a journalist for the Sunday Tribune. They claimed the work was a tribute to their father, and that the name 'Father Pat Noise' is a word play on pater noster, Latin for "our father". The 'HSTI' is also fictitious. Peadar Clancy (misspelled on the plaque) was a genuine Irish Republican Army officer killed on the evening of Bloody Sunday, 1920
The plaque was laid in a depression left by the removal of the control box for the "Millennium Countdown" clock, installed in the waters of the River Liffey in March 1996 as a countdown to the year 2000. The clock and control box were removed in December 1996 after persistent technical and visibility problems. Dublin City Council stated when the story broke that the Pat Noise plaque would be removed, as it was unauthorised. Several ironic tributes of flowers and messages were left at the plaque. A meeting of the South East Area Committee of the Council in December 2006 supported leaving it in place. The original Fr. Noise plaque was removed in March 2007 during restoration work on the Bridge. A second plaque was installed, again surreptitiously, some time later. On 22 May 2007, Dublin City Council engineers intended to remove the plaque, but were stopped by City Councillor Dermot Lacey, who insisted the Council's order should stand.
Eoin Dillon's 2011 album The Golden Mean includes "Lament for Fr. Pat Noise".