Located within a triangle formed by Eccles Street, Berkeley Road and St.Joseph’s Church.
I have never managed to gain access to the park, known as the Mater Plot, where this Celtic Cross is located as it has been closed to the public every time I visit the area.
Four Masters Memorial (1876) By James Cahill (d.1890) Commissioned by Sir William Wilde (1815-1876)
This high cross on a large plinth commemorates the Franciscan friars of Donegal town, who between 1632 and 1636 compiled from early sources a history of the ancient kingdom of Ireland which became known as the Annals of the Four Masters.
The Annals are chronicles of the medieval history of Ireland. Sir William Wilde (father of Oscar Wilde) was the chief instigator of the memorial to the four writers who created the Annals. Wilde was an eye and ear surgeon and an antiquarian, who took an active role in sculptural commissions in Dublin. He was passionately interested in the history of Ireland and was a very active member of the Royal Irish Academy, hence the theme of this sculpture.
James Cahill was born in Delvin, Westmeath. On the death of his father, a builder, his mother moved to Dublin, and he became a pupil in the Royal Dublin Society School, where he won prizes in 1851 and 1852. He sent a sculptural group (part of a marble monument executed for the Presentation Convent in Wexford) to be exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1852, and then went to Rome where he remained for a few months.
On his return to Dublin in 1853 he entered Hogan’s studio, where he worked as a pupil and assistant until 1858. He executed a number of works for churches and also portrait busts and statues. His most important production was the statue of Daniel O’Connell, erected in Ennis in 1865. His works appeared in the Royal Hibernian Academy at intervals between 1856 and 1886. He died in Dublin on 28th October, 1890, aged about 60, and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.
PHOTOGRAPHED NEAR THE WELLINGTON MONUMENT 11 MAY 2008
The two clubs in my photographs are both close to the Wellington Monument is Phoenix Park and I have not visited the immediate area again since 11 May 2008.
Cricket was introduced to Ireland by the English in the towns of Kilkenny and Ballinasloe in the early 19th century. In the 1830s, the game began to spread; many of the clubs which were founded in the following 30 years are still in existence today. The first Irish national team played in 1855 against The Gentlemen of England in Dublin. In the 1850s, the Englishman Charles Lawrence was responsible for developing the game in Ireland through his coaching. In the 1850s and 1860s, Ireland was visited for the first time by touring professional teams. Ireland’s first match against Marylebone Cricket Club (the M.C.C.) was in 1858.
The game gained popularity until the early 1880s. The land war in the 1880s resulting from the Irish Land Commission and a ban on playing “foreign” games, in practice, British, by the Gaelic Athletic Association set back the spread of cricket. The ban was lifted in 1970, and before then anyone playing foreign games, such as cricket was banned from the Irish games such as hurling and Gaelic football. Irish teams toured Canada and the US in 1879, 1888, 1892, and 1909. On top of this, Ireland defeated a touring South African side in 1904. Their first match with first-class status was played on 19 May 1902 against a London County side including W.G. Grace. The Irish, captained by Sir Tim O’Brien, won convincingly by 238 runs.
In January 2012 Cricket Ireland chief executive Warren Deutrom publicly declared Ireland’s ambition to play Test cricket by 2020. Their desire to achieve Test status was in part to stem the tide of Irish players using residency rules to switch to England for the opportunity to play Test cricket. Deutrom outlined the ambition as he unveiled the new strategic plan for Irish cricket to 2015. The plan set out a series of stretching goals including increasing the number of participants in the game to 50,000, setting a target of reaching 8th in the World rankings, establishing a domestic first-class cricket structure, and reinforcing cricket as the fifth most popular team sport in Ireland.
Deutrom had already sent a letter to the ICC in 2009 stating his board’s intention to apply for Full Membership – a potential pathway to Test cricket – and to seek clarification on the process. Former Australian bowler Jason Gillespie said that if Ireland got Test status it “would be huge news in world cricket, and it would be a massive positive story for the world game”. Following Ireland’s victory over the West Indies in the 2015 Cricket World Cup, former fast bowler Michael Holding said that the International Cricket Council should grant Ireland Test status immediately, saying “they need to be recognised now”. The ICC said in 2015 that Ireland would be granted Test status in 2019 should they win the 2015–17 ICC Intercontinental Cup and beat the 10th ranked Test nation in a four-match Test series in 2018.
However, on 22 June 2017, after more than a decade of playing top-class international cricket, full ICC membership was granted to Ireland (along with Afghanistan) at an ICC meeting in London, thus making them the eleventh Test cricket team. In October 2017, the ICC announced that Ireland’s first Test match would be at home against Pakistan in May 2018. Ireland played their first ‘touring’ Test in India in March 2019 against fellow newcomers Afghanistan, where they lost by 7 wickets. This was followed by a four-day Test match against England at Lord’s in July 2019. According to the ICC Future Tours Programme for 2019–23, Ireland are scheduled to play sixteen Tests, but along with Afghanistan and Zimbabwe, are not included in the first two editions of the ICC World Test Championship.
Phoenix Cricket Club is the oldest in Ireland and believed to be one of the oldest in the world having been founded in 1830. Prior to 1834 the Club members met and practiced in the Phoenix Park but in 1835 the Club moved out of the Park and played its matches in open fields south of the Canal behind Upper Baggot Street. In 1838 the Commissioner of Woods and Forests granted permission for a 150 yards square near the Wellington monument. At that time a temporary rail had to be erected as several players were injured as the ground had been cut up by wandering animals. Permanent rails were subsequently erected of an agreed thickness and painted white so as to be clearly visible to horsemen.
In 1846 when Chesterfield Avenue, the main road through the Park was widened the Club had to move again. A new ground in an adjacent area was recommended and in view of the expense already incurred by the Club the move was financed by the Board of Works at a cost of £73 and Phoenix have remained at the present ground ever since.
The decades, 1950 – 1970 were without the glory of the previous years due to an aging team. Despite 2 cups in the 1950s, the next decade was without a major trophy during the whole of that decade. In the later 1960s a younger squad started to emerge and, after 22 years, Phoenix won the John Player Senior cup in 1973; and in 1974 the club were the inaugural winners of the Wiggins Teape League. In 1975, Phoenix accomplished the Grand Slam (all three trophies and the only club to ever do it). During the entire decade the 1st XI relied on a hard core of 15 players to lift 6 cups, 3 league titles and 2 Wiggins Teape.
Phoenix Cricket Club continues to promote the game of cricket and provides competition and enjoyment for its members and visiting teams as well as providing free sport viewing for the locals and tourists in the wonderful Phoenix Park.
In the early 1860s The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, decided that public service employees needed some quality rest and recreation so he pushed a Bill through Parliament, granting Civil Servants a cricket ground in Phoenix Park, right beside the Dog Pond, where the Civil Service Cricket Club play to this day.
Constructed in the early thirteenth century on the site of a Viking settlement, Dublin Castle served for centuries as the headquarters of English, and later British, administration in Ireland. In 1922, following Ireland’s independence, Dublin Castle was handed over to the new Irish government. It is now a major government complex and a key tourist attraction.
There are a number of gardens for you to visit.
The gardens are situated immediately south of the Chapel Royal and the State Apartments within an enclosing stone wall. The gardens are entered through wrought-iron gates of Celtic-inspired spirals.
At the heart of the gardens is the grassy sward of the Dubh Linn Garden, where patterns representing sea serpents are cut into the lawn. This lawn is on or near the site of the original dubh linn or ‘black pool’, where the Vikings harboured their ships and set up a trading base. It was this pool that gave its name to the city: Dublin. The Castle Gardens are immensely popular with visitors and the citizens of Dublin alike. On sunny summer days the gardens are crowded with people enjoying the beautiful surroundings of this special place.
Beyond a ‘four seasons’ garden lie four smaller gardens, one at each corner of the site. All contain specially commissioned works of sculpture. Three of these have since been designated as memorial gardens. One is dedicated to the memory of investigative journalist Veronica Guerin. Another contains a bronze sculpture commemorating the Special Olympics held in Ireland in 2003, with the names of the 30,000 volunteers who contributed to the games inscribed on plaques. The third and largest of these corner gardens is the sheltered Garda Memorial Garden, redesigned and completed in 2009. In this garden the names of all members of the Gardaí (Irish Police) killed in the line of duty are inscribed on a roll of honour. Several sculptural works are also incorporated into the layout. These works and the overall design of the garden are intended to reflect how the premature deaths of loved ones leave a trace or imprint, like ripples in a pool, on the lives of those left behind.
Dublin City Council manages over 125 playgrounds in parks and housing complexes.
I have noticed this play area until today even though I know the area reasonably well.
According to some locals that I spoke to there was once a playground here, however it was demolished approximately by the early 90’s and remained as a derelict site until it was again brought to the attention of Dublin City Council by local residents as a potential site for a ‘play’.
Given that there are 2 key city Parks and playgrounds in close proximity albeit requiring adult supervision for appropriate age group, it was agreed between DCC and local residents to develop the site in order to compensate for the lack of open space for street play and ‘free play’ activities for children as this flat complex is in the heart of Christchurch and subject to a high volume of busy city vehicle and tourist traffic.
By October 2017 a new and innovative ‘play space’ had also been developed at Ross Road. This site was officially opened in May 2018.
The Ross Road Flats form part of the most significant renewal scheme undertaken in Dublin during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Developed for Dublin Corporation and designed by C. J. McCarthy, these purpose-built apartment blocks provided improved quality housing for hundreds of families. Often referred to as tenement blocks, this simply refers to their form, with several apartments accessed by one staircase. The residential blocks on Ross Road are relatively plain, though they are enlivened by the the curved gables and central breakfronts, motifs also seen in the facades of the nearby Iveagh Buildings. The variety in the window design, and particularly the sill types, provides architectural detail to the front facades.
Today I experimented hoping to produce images that differed in style from what I normally publish online. I used a Canon 1Ds MkIII which is about 15 years old and I used a Voigtlander 40mm f/2.0 Ultron SL II Aspherical Lens. https://dustinabbott.net/2017/05/voigtlander-ultron-40mm-f2-sl-ii-review/
I underexposed and then processed the images through DX0 PureRAW in order to reduce noise. The resulting files were then processed using Adobe Lightroom Classic.
The name of the cemetery comes from an estate established there by the Reverend Stephen Jerome, who in 1639 was vicar of St. Kevin’s Parish. At that time, Harold’s Cross was part of St. Kevin’s Parish. In the latter half of the 17th century, the land passed into the ownership of the Earl of Meath, who in turn leased plots to prominent Dublin families.
A house, Mount Jerome House, was constructed in one of these plots, and leased to John Keogh. In 1834, after an aborted attempt to set up a cemetery in the Phoenix Park, the General Cemetery Company of Dublin bought the Mount Jerome property, “for establishing a general cemetery in the neighbourhood of the city of Dublin”.
The first official burial happened on the 19th of September 1836. The buried deceased were the infant twins of Matthew Pollock.
The cemetery initially started with a landmass of 26 acres and grew to a size of 48 acres in 1874.
In 1984, burial numbers were falling, thus the Cemetery was losing revenue and began to deteriorate. A crematorium was needed to regain revenue and deal with plant overgrowth on the estate.
The Funerary Chapel in the cemetery was the first Puginian Gothic church in Dublin. It was designed by William Atkins.
In 2000, Mount Jerome Cemetery established its own crematorium on the site.
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