NOT EXACTLY A HANGING GARDEN THE SKY GARDEN AT FITZGERALD PARK

I really like this but as always, in Ireland, there is a complicated story or history associated with this garden. I don’t know the exact details but there was a major dispute between Cork City Council and the designer Diarmuid Gavin.

Relations between Gavin and the city council eventually deteriorated to such an extent that City Hall cut all ties with Gavin and moved on with the project without him. below is a quote from a local publication:

“Mr Gavin also expressed embarrassment at being associated with the venture, the cost of which is disputed, and questioned the morality of spending more money revamping Fitzgerald Park in order to incorporate the overhanging steel pod inspired by the film Avatar.”

According to some the City Council decided against suspending the structure for safety reasons.

This was originally Diarmuid Gavin’s Sky Garden which was a major feature at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2011 and it won the top prize.

The ‘Irish Sky Garden’, sponsored by Fáilte Ireland and Cork City Council, was suspended 82 feet in the air and contained 25 pools as well as grasses, photinias and bamboos. The eye-shaped garden was inspired by Dublin animator Richie Baneham, whose visual affects from the movie Avatar were integrated into the design.

Diarmuid Gavin’s controversial Sky Garden was part of a major programme to develop a world-class horticultural tourist trail in Cork city which the local council which was to be in operation by the summer/autumn of 2012.

The Mardyke Gardens encompassing Fitzgerald’s Park now includes a restored historic fountain and pond dating from the Cork Exhibition of 1902.