Please be aware that these photographs were taken on the 16th April 2016 and that the circle has been restored but the water feature has been infilled. I plan to publish more recent photographs later in July or August [2023].
Back in 2015 I was getting more than worried about the future of the “follies” in St. Anne’s park as most, if not all of them were in very poor condition.
When I visited in April 2016 there was still a basin at the Park, minus its central statue however the hedges were no longer in an overgrown state.
An account from 1873 (W. Heale, 1873) describes the yew circle in detail: “On the east side of this [Dutch style flower] garden is an amphitheatre some 150 feet in circumference; the outer portion is a well-kept Yew hedge with five entrances; equidistant from each entrance are four marble statues representing Europe, Asia, Africa and America; Australia is not yet represented. The centre is a costly marble basin with fountain and stocked with gold and silver fish.‟
In a quarter of the walled garden was a circular yew hedge with alcoves and arches in which stood allegorical Italian statues representing the five continents. These statues were reflected in the great circular marble basin which occupied the centre (Malins and Bowe, 1980). The 1939 auction catalogue included these statues: “Lot 1471 – 4 carved stone figures representing the continents, on square bases with carved mouldings‟ (Adam, 1939).
The description below refers to the Yew Circle as it was prior to my visit in April as it was anything but overgrown when I had visited in April of that year. The yew trees had been cut back to what appeared to be to an extreme degree.
The Yew Circle at St Anne’s Park in Dublin was created in the 1830s by Benjamin Lee Guinness, a member of the famous brewing family. The circle is made up of a circular yew hedge that was originally planted with five alcoves, each of which contained an Italian statue representing one of the five continents. In the centre of the circle was a fountain, which is now no longer extant.
The Yew Circle was part of the formal gardens that were once located at St Anne’s House, the Guinness family’s mansion on the site. The gardens were designed in the Italianate style, and they included a number of other follies, such as a Roman-style viewing tower and a cast-iron floral temple.
The Yew Circle fell into disrepair after St Anne’s House was demolished in 1939. However, it was restored in the 1980s, and it is now one of the most popular attractions in St Anne’s Park. The circle is still overgrown, but the five alcoves and the fountain base are still visible.
The Yew Circle is a fascinating example of 19th-century garden design. It is a reminder of the time when St Anne’s House was a grand estate, and it is a popular spot for visitors to the park today.
Here are some additional details [that no longer apply] about the Yew Circle:
The yew hedge is about 100 feet in diameter. The five alcoves are each about 6 feet wide and 4 feet deep. The fountain base is about 10 feet in diameter. The statues in the alcoves represent the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Australia. The Yew Circle is located in the northeastern part of St Anne’s Park.
SCULPTURE AT ENTRANCE TO ST KILIAN’S GERMAN SCHOOL ON ROEBUCK ROAD
The photograph is a bit confusing because a row of black and orange bollards can be seen through part of the sculpture … I am assuming that the sculpture is a representation of the saint.
St Kilian’s German School (Deutsche Schule Dublin – DSD) is an independent German international school in Dublin, Ireland.
Kilian, also spelled Killian (or alternatively Irish: Cillian; Latin: Kilianus), was an Irish missionary bishop and the Apostle of Franconia (Franconia is nowadays the northern part of Bavaria), where he began his labours towards the end of the 7th century. His feast day is 8 July.
St Kilian’s is legally a single organisation, with a primary school, offering kindergarten (junior infants) and vorschule (senior infants) and main primary school (1st to 6th classes), and a secondary school. It is open to students from ages 4 to 18.
German is taught from the start, but is not required for entry. In primary school, where relevant, input from the school programme of the German state of Baden-Württemberg is used. Depending on development of German language skills, pupils may have the option to pursue a German curriculum stream from 4th class. The school provides German language education beyond the level required by the Irish German curriculum, enabling pupils to take the German Sprachdiplom exams and qualify with the linguistic level required to enter German universities.
Some classes in the Junior Cycle (1st to 3rd years) are shared with the Lycée Français d’Irlande.
St Kilian’s was founded in the early 1950s, developing from the work of a Dublin charity, the Save the German Children Society, founded in 1945.
Since 2002, St Kilian’s has shared sites with Lycée Française d’Irlande, the combined campus known as the “Eurocampus”.
The secondary school has a typical rate of progression to third-level of 90-100%. In 2020 this reduced to 63%, following significant reduction in teacher-assigned grades, with even native German language speakers being graded H3 instead of school-assessed H1. The school and 9 pupils pursued High Court actions over this.
OPERATION SHAMROCK
Operation Shamrock was a scheme bringing refugee children from mainland Europe to Ireland in the aftermath of the Second World War. It was organised by the Irish Red Cross, and involved about 500 children, mostly from Germany, who stayed for three years before returning home.
Irish assistance to Germany reinforced in Britain the perception, fostered by wartime neutrality, that Ireland was pro-Nazi. Conversely, West Germany in the 1950s had gratitude for Ireland’s postwar relief aid, and ties grew between the countries. In January 1956 a memorial fountain sculpted by Joseph Wackerle and commissioned by the German Gratitude Fund was unveiled in St Stephen’s Green, Dublin, by the West German ambassador.
In 1961, the German war cemetery was opened near St Kevin’s Hostel, Glencree, for graves of German aviators killed in Ireland during the war. In 1974, the hostel became the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation, which played a role in the Northern Ireland peace process in the 1990s.
German-language courses provided for refugees in Dublin led to the foundation of St Kilian’s German School.
In March 1997, a reunion of over 300 foster-children and families was held at the German embassy in Dublin, attended by Presidents Mary Robinson of Ireland and Roman Herzog of Germany.
As part of The Gathering Ireland 2013, 21 refugee children from Germany, France and Austria returned to Glencree.
FORME IN MUTAZIONDE BY GIORGIO ZENNARO AT UCD CAMPUS NEAR THE LAKE
There are at least 35 examples of public art throughout the campus and having obtained a detailed map I hope to photograph all of them over the next few months.
Zennaro (b.1926, Venice) is a leading Italian exponent of the Concrete Art movement. Concrete Art is a form of abstraction that dismisses any analogies to nature or the natural world. This work was donated by the late Italian Ambassador to Ireland Dr. Francesco Carlo Gentile.
There is no real time passenger information display making, the problem described, even worse.
When I lived in Carlingford Road this was my local bus stop and I hated it. Unless you have used it you may not appreciate what the problem is. The bus shelter is positioned in such a way that one cannot see an approaching bus until it has actually passed the stop.
On a wet day the stop is very badly exposed and even then it can be difficult to see an approaching bus to the extent that the bus drivers frequently just drive by without stopping.
Dublin Bus was established on 2 February 1987, when Córas Iompair Éireann was split into 3 subsidiaries, Dublin Bus, Bus Eireann and Irish Rail. In September 2011, Dublin Bus received a significant technological upgrade with its introduction of real time passenger information.
YOU ARE GOING TO REAP JUST WHAT YOU SOW BY CONLETH GENT
Conleth Gent was born in Newbridge, Co. Kildare and studied at U.C.D. University College Dublin. His love of wood and working with wood can be clearly seen in each of his unique pieces. He is concerned mainly with personal expression through the use of figurative elements and occasionally abstract forms. His approach is individualistic, communicating something of the character of the particular piece of wood and his interaction and relationship with it.
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