PEACE PARK NEAR CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL

I was a bit annoyed to discover that this park, which was supposed to have opened to the public yesterday, was locked today when I visited.

I last gained entry to this park in April 2009 but I did manage to photograph some elements of it this January [2019] but it was effectively derelict then.

The ‘Tree of Life’ cast bronzes which were originally placed in the garden back in 1988 have been restored.

This public park on Nicholas Street was designed as a sunken garden so as reduce traffic noise at what is a very busy junction.

The park’s old main features include a bronze ‘Tree of Life’ statue, a fountain, and features biblical and quotes from Irish poets WB Yeats and Patrick Kavanagh have been retained but I could not confirm this to be true. A number of the elements from Dublin City Council’s 2017 Silver Gilt ‘Bloom’ garden including a fountain, granite paving and solid oak benches have been relocated here.

I did read in local newspapers that there is also an offer from the Government of Flanders to partner with Dublin City on a memorial to the 50,000 Irishmen who died in the Flanders fields but a number of councillors objected claiming that it would be inappropriate to have a war memorial in a ‘peace’ garden or park but my understanding is that the project went ahead.