ST PATRICK’S CATHEDRAL AND THE ADJACENT PUBLIC PARK
Some good news: St Patrick’s Day, a bank holiday here in Ireland, is on a Thursday this year but the Government has announced that the Friday will also be a bank holiday and that starting in February 2023 the first Monday of the month will be a bank holiday in honour of all who died during the Covid-19 Pandemic.
I visit this park on a regular basis and I really like but at times it can be a bit crowded.
Saint Patrick’s Park, located to the north of St.Patrick’s cathedral, was opened by King Edward VII in July 1902. It is bounded by Patrick Street to the west, Bull Alley to the north and Bride Street to the east. It was laid out as part of the redevelopment of the area by the Guinness family in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and provides an attractive setting for both Saint Patrick’s Cathedral and the Iveagh Play Centre. The landscaping was the work of Mr. Crasp of Chester and the construction work was undertaken by engineer Mr. Arthur Dudgeon. The geometric landscaping is enhanced by the two stone fountains on the park’s principal axis and a modern sculpture of a steel bell by Vivienne Roche. A brick terrace was constructed to cope with the fall in ground level between Bride Street Patrick Street, the upper level of which was used as a bandstand while the lower level provided a sheltered seating area.
In 2015 a new Tearoom and Public Toilets were inserted into existing storage spaces behind the historic arches. All new interventions into the historic fabric are carried out in bespoke steelwork elements. A new terrace outside features a 5m long communal table set underneath a magnolia tree.
Today I visited Lower Dominick Street in order to experiment with my ultra-wide lens which I purchased a few weeks before the first Covid-19 lockdown here in Dublin.
In 1974 St. Saviour’s became the parish church for the surrounding area and in 2000 was made the Studium for the formation and training of priests for the Irish Dominicans. A further major step in these years was the establishment of the Dominican Polish Chaplaincy in St. Saviour’s which today sees large numbers of Polish faithful attending Mass and services every week, along with the Irish and Spanish-language congregations, making St. Saviour’s a truly international church in the heart of Dublin.
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