FEBRUARY 2023
The Iveagh Gardens are among the finest and least known of Dublin’s parks and gardens. Designed in 1863 they include a rustic grotto, cascade, fountains, maze, rosarium, archery grounds, and woodlands.







URBAN EXPRESSION AND DEPRESSION
Street Photography That Highlights Urban Life
by Infomatique
FEBRUARY 2023
The Iveagh Gardens are among the finest and least known of Dublin’s parks and gardens. Designed in 1863 they include a rustic grotto, cascade, fountains, maze, rosarium, archery grounds, and woodlands.
by Infomatique
IVEAGH GARDENS DUBLIN 10 FEBRUARY
Daffodils are naturally suited to the growing conditions in Ireland. These hardy, perennial bulbs, whose preferred habitat is deciduous woodland, flower in early Spring before leaves form on the trees.
Wild daffodils are native woodland plants in much of western Europe, including England and Wales but it is claimed that they are not native to Ireland which is surprising to me because when I lived in a remote area near Muff in Donegal there were three of four fields near our house which were full of “wild daffodils” every March. Our nearest neighbour was about a mile away and there were no gardens nearby.
The true wild daffodil is small with a trumpet that is darker yellow than the surrounding petals. However, most if not all of the daffodils flowering in the wild in Ireland at present are garden escapees. They survive well in the wild because they protect themselves from grazing animals by containing an alkaloid poison called lycorine. The highest concentration is in the bulbs but it’s also present in the foliage and flowers. Lycorine is also poisonous to humans and there are recorded cases of illness and even death, usually caused when people mistake the bulb for an onion.
“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (also commonly known as “Daffodils”) is a lyric poem by William Wordsworth. It is one of his most popular, and was inspired by a forest encounter on 15 April 1802 between he, his younger sister Dorothy and a “long belt” of daffodils. Written in 1804, it was first published in 1807 in Poems, in Two Volumes, and as a revision in 1815.
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
and twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
in such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
what wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
by Infomatique
IVEAGH GARDENS IN DUBLIN
This caught me by surprise today even though I visit the gardens on a regular basis I was unaware of this Human Rights Memorial.
Ogham is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the early Irish language (in the “orthodox” inscriptions, 4th to 6th centuries AD), and later the Old Irish language (scholastic ogham, 6th to 9th centuries). There are roughly 400 surviving orthodox inscriptions on stone monuments throughout Ireland and western Britain, the bulk of which are in southern Munster. The largest number outside Ireland are in Pembrokeshire, Wales.
The vast majority of the inscriptions consist of personal names.
9 December 2020
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney T.D., today inaugurated a memorial monument in Iveagh Gardens alongside UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders Mary Lawlor, and Front Line Defenders Executive Director Andrew Anderson. It commemorates the lives of human rights defenders who have been killed because of their peaceful work defending the rights of others.
The Memorial was jointly initiated by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Front Line Defenders to provide a physical space in the heart of Dublin city to recognise the important work of human rights defenders around the world, and pay tribute to the many brave and inspirational human rights defenders who have been silenced.
Designed by Grafton Architects, the monument is an Ogham garden, comprised of five standing stones, etched with ancient Irish Ogham script, each representing a native Irish tree. The space is enclosed by a crafted metal screen, on which are plaques, bearing the words of those who gave their most precious gift – their life – for their causes.
The plaques include the following words spoken by environmental and indigenous peoples rights defender Bety Cariño at a gathering of human rights defenders in Dublin Castle in February 2010. Two months later she was shot dead during a peaceful solidarity procession in Northern Oaxaca, Mexico.
“Today we want to live another history: we are rebelling and we are saying enough is enough. Today and here, we want to say that they are afraid of us because we are not afraid of them, because despite their threats, despite their slander, despite their harassment, we continue to walk towards a sun which we think shines strongly”.
At today’s launch in Iveagh Gardens, Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney said:
“The Irish government is proud of its partnership with Front Line Defenders in supporting and promoting the work of human rights defenders. This memorial will represent a place where Irish people, and those who visit our shores, can come and pay tribute to human rights defenders worldwide who have lost their lives in the peaceful pursuit of human rights and equality for all.”
Executive Director of Front Line Defenders, Andrew Anderson spoke about the legacies of the defenders:
“It is important to remember the peaceful defenders of human rights that the killers have tried to erase, but also to celebrate their lives and achievements. Natalya Estemirova, Floribert Chebeya and Bertha Caceres were murdered because they made a difference, and they continue to inspire a new generation of human rights defenders.”
UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor stated:
“Between 2015 and 2019 the UN documented the killing of 1323 human rights defenders in 64 countries. It is shocking and unacceptable that human rights defenders have been killed in almost a third of all member States of the United Nations.”
Özlem Dalkiran, a human rights defender from Turkey attended the unveiling and spoke about her colleague and friend Hrant Dink, a human rights defender and journalist who was shot outside the offices of the newspaper where he worked in 2007.
“By killing Hrant, they couldn’t kill his dreams. On the contrary they helped the seed he sowed to grow much faster.”
by Infomatique
MANY ARE UNAWARE OF IVEAGH GARDENS THE SECRET WALLED GARDEN
The Iveagh Gardens is a public park located between Clonmel Street and Upper Hatch Street, near the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Ireland. It is a national, as opposed to a municipal park, and designated as a National Historic Property. The gardens are almost completely surrounded by buildings making them less noticeable and a little hard to find, unlike other green spaces in Dublin.
In the late 18th century Lord Milltown leased the land to John Hatch, the principal developer of Harcourt and Hatch Streets. Hatch sold it to The 1st Earl of Clonmell (also known as “Copper-Faced Jack”) as his private gardens. The gardens then became known as Clonmell Lawns Located on Harcourt Street is Clonmell House that faces on to Clonmell Street which leads into the Iveagh Gardens. A subterranean passage brought the Earl from his house to the gardens without him having to walk over the street. The Wide Streets Commission had planned for Clonmell Street to run through what is now the gardens thereby linking Harcourt Street to the then newly constructed Earlsfort Terrace. However, this passage was not located during archaeological monitoring conducted during the construction of the LUAS.
When the 1st Earl died in 1798, his son the 2nd Earl (then aged 14 years old) inherited the estate including Clonmell Gardens. The estate was sold in 1810 and the gardens were opened for public use around 1817 and renamed “Coburg Gardens” after the royal family of Saxe-Coburg. Entrance to the park was from the South Side of St Stephen’s Green, the “Royal Horse Bazaar”.
The Coburg Gardens provided the setting for a major riot in August 1835, during which several Orangemen were badly injured. By 1860 the gardens had fallen into disrepair being used as a site for grazing sheep and dumping waste.
In 1862, Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness co-founded the Dublin Exhibition Palace and Winter Garden Company (Limited), with the intention of providing a permanent exhibition of Irish arts and manufactures and also reading rooms, flower gardens, and a gas-lit winter garden, for public enjoyment modeled on the Crystal Palace of Sydenham. He sold the 17-acre site to the company for the price he had paid for it. The site was selected as the location for the Dublin Exhibition Palace and Winter Garden, which was officially opened by H.R.H. Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, on 9 May 1865.
In 1870, Sir Benjamin Lee’s sons, Edward Cecil Guinness (later Lord Iveagh) and Arthur Edward Guinness (later Lord Ardilaun), re-acquired the buildings and grounds from the Dublin Exhibition Palace Company. In 1872, the site was used for an Exhibition of Irish arts and manufactures, however, this was not a success and the gardens reverted to private ownership. The Winter Gardens were sold in 1882 and removed to England. In 1883, Edward Cecil Guinness sold the exhibition buildings to the Commissioners of Public Works to be adapted to house the new Royal University, and the gardens remained the property of the Guinness family. The buildings were further adapted after the creation of University College Dublin (UCD), in 1908 and in 1918, the present façade to Earlsfort Terrace was erected to the designs of Rudolph Maximilian Butler.
Éamon de Valera, who was then both Taoiseach and also chancellor of University College Dublin, initiated inquiries with The 2nd Earl of Iveagh as to whether he would sell Iveagh House and the gardens complex to the Irish state. On 8 June 1937, this request was declined. However, on 4 May 1939 Lord Iveagh wrote to Éamon de Valera offering the Iveagh complex by way of gift to the nation. Lord Iveagh had been concerned as to the future use of the site, and specified in his letter of offer to Éamon de Valera that the Iveagh Gardens remain unbuilt on, as a lung for Dublin. On 17 May 1939 this gift was accepted by the Government and Éamon de Valera wrote to Rupert, Lord Iveagh. In 1941, the Gardens were re-united with the college buildings of Earlsfort Terrace. However, there is, as of 2020, no public access to the former college buildings which are now buildings of the National Concert Hall and the planned children’s science museum, Experimentation Station.
With the growth of student numbers at the university buildings, consideration was given in 1961 to building on the Iveagh Gardens. However, this did not occur and the university moved instead to Belfield, thereby saving the gardens.
In 1991 the gardens were placed under the management of The Office of Public Works. The OPW brief was under six distinct headings:
to conserve and restore a unique city-centre park, which has remained largely unaltered since its layout by the landscape architect Ninian Niven;
to improve public accessibility by constructing a new entrance from Hatch Street;
to focus attention on one of Ireland’s most influential landscape architects and horticulturists, Ninian Niven, by conserving one of his few surviving landscape creations;
to conserve the internal and perimeter vegetation to screen out adjacent office blocks and buildings;
to highlight the large range of landscape features for public enjoyment and landscape appreciation; and
to restore these gardens creating a major tourist attraction offering a unique landscape not available in other city parks and gardens in Dublin.
A major restoration of the gardens to return them to their original state commenced in 1992 and they opened again to the public in 1992. The waterfall or cascade was allocated IR£200,000 in 1996 for its restoration.
In 2003, a new entrance was added to the Gardens from Upper Hatch Street. I must admit that I was unaware of this entrance until this visit [July 2022].
The gardens in their present form were designed by Ninian Niven, in 1865, as an intermediate design between the ‘French Formal’ and the ‘English Landscape’ styles.
A large sunken lawn located near the Earlsfort Terrace entrance is Ireland’s only purpose-built archery field. At its eastern end was a pond and boating tower. The tower now stands inside the boundary wall of Iveagh House. Beneath this lawn lie the remains of an elephant from Dublin Zoo, which was buried there in 1922.
The cascade, or waterfall, flows over an immense rockery, with rocks from each of Ireland’s 32 counties. The cascade uses recycled water today but originally used water from the Grand Canal.
The maze, which is a miniature copy of London’s Hampton Court Maze.
ADVERTISING
Last update on 2023-03-11 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
by Infomatique
IVEAGH GARDENS OFF CLONMEL STREET
This park is very close the Harcourt Luas tram stop.
Iveagh Gardens are popularly known as Dublin’s ‘Secret Garden’. However, if they are known as such then they are not really secret.
I went to school and college in the area and I visited this public park on a regular basis, back then very few were aware of the park, and as kids were were fascinated the broken statues and old ruins. One of my teachers told us that many of the items were follies and therefor fake [i.e. old roman statues were less than a hundred years]
Designed by Ninian Niven in 1865, but with a history dating back over three hundred years, the Iveagh Gardens are located close to St Stephen’s Green Park in Dublin city centre.
From modest beginnings as an earl’s lawn, the gardens went on to host the splendour of the Dublin Exhibition Palace in 1865. Many of the original landscape features are still in place, or have been restored and conserved since 1995. These include the yew maze, the rosarium, and the fountains. The cascade in particular is a stunning spectacle in summer.
This is the default gallery type template, located in:
/nas/content/live/ukstore/wp-content/plugins/nextgen-gallery/products/photocrati_nextgen/modules/nextgen_gallery_display/templates/index.php.
If you're seeing this, it's because the gallery type you selected has not provided a template of it's own.
You must be logged in to post a comment.