The Peace Park () is a small

public park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a city park, municipal park (North America), public park, public open space, or municipal gardens (United Kingdom, UK), is a park or botanical garden in cities, densely populated suburbia and oth ...

located across from

Christchurch Cathedral Christ Church Cathedral, also called ChristChurch Cathedral and (rarely) Cathedral Church of Christ, is a deconsecration, deconsecrated Anglicanism, Anglican cathedral in the central city of Christchurch, New Zealand. It was built between 1864 ...

on the corner of Nicholas Street and

Christchurch Place Christchurch Place () is a street in central Dublin, Ireland, formerly known as Skinners Row or Skinner's Row, it formed one of the main thoroughfares in medieval Dublin. History The street runs along the southern edge of Christ Church Cath ...

the Liberties The Liberties ( or occasionally ) is an area in central Dublin, Ireland, located in the southwest of the inner city. Formed from various areas of special manorial jurisdiction, initially separate from the main city government, it is one of Dub ...

area of

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

History

The park is situated on the site of Dublin's old

Tholsel Tholsel was a name traditionally used for a local municipal and administrative building used to collect tolls and taxes and to administer trade and other documents in Irish towns and cities. It was at one stage one of the most important secular ...

, an important building which combined the function of civic hall, guildhall, court and gaol from the time of the

Norman invasion of Ireland The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland took place during the late 12th century, when Anglo-Normans gradually conquered and acquired large swathes of land in Ireland over which the monarchs of England then claimed sovereignty. The Anglo-Normans ...

until it was demolished around 1809. Activities carried on at the Tholsel included that of a merchants' exchange, and sittings of the City Recorder's Court where punishments for crimes less serious than murder were meted out. These punishments included being whipped while being dragged behind a horse and cart from Skinner's Row (modern day Christchurch Place) to

College Green College Green or The College Green may refer to: * College Green, Adelaide outdoor venue at the University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Establish ...

some distance away. Alternatively, convicted people were flayed and/or pilloried at the front of the building. These punishments had ceased by the late 1700s. Part of the remains of the church of St. Nicholas Within stand to the south-west of the park. Designed in the late 1980s as a sunken garden, with an aim towards reducing the traffic noise from the busy junction at which it exists, the park was dedicated to the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

's desire for peace in 1988 during

the Troubles The Troubles () were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed t ...

. The park is paved with a type of rock from

County Clare County Clare () is a Counties of Ireland, county in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster in the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern part of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council ...

named

Liscannor Liscannor () is a coastal village in County Clare, Ireland. It is located between Lahinch and Doolin, close to the Cliffs of Moher. As of the 2022 census it had a population of 135. Geography Lying on the west coast of Ireland, on Liscan ...

Flagstone, "characterised by traces of unknown organisms". In 2009/2010 it was decided to close the park indefinitely due to loitering and antisocial behaviour and for nearly 10 years afterwards it remained shut. Prior to redevelopment in 2019, the park's main features included a bronze 'Tree of Life' statue, a fountain, and quotes from Irish poets

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the ...

and

Patrick Kavanagh Patrick Kavanagh (21 October 1904 – 30 November 1967) was an Irish poet and novelist. His best-known works include the novel ''Tarry Flynn'', and the poems "On Raglan Road" and "The Great Hunger". He is known for his accounts of Irish life th ...

engraved on surfaces. The 'Tree of Life' cast bronzes were originally placed in the garden for the Dublin Millennium celebrations which were celebrated in the city in 1988 (other commemorative ventures that year included the installation of the

Molly Malone "Molly Malone" ( Roud 16932, also known as "Cockles and Mussels" or "In Dublin's Fair City") is a song set in Dublin, Ireland, which has become the city's unofficial anthem. A statue representing Molly Malone, designed by Dublin artist Jeanne ...

statue on

Grafton Street Grafton Street () is one of the two principal shopping streets in Dublin city centre — the other being Henry Street. It runs from St Stephen's Green in the south (at the highest point of the street) to College Green in the north (the low ...

). In front of the park stands "Millennium Child", a sculpture of three bronze statues of children playing created by John Behan which was unveiled by President of Ireland

Mary McAleese Mary Patricia McAleese ( ; ; ; born 27 June 1951) is an Irish activist lawyer, academic, author, and former politician who served as the president of Ireland from November 1997 to November 2011. McAleese was first elected as president in 1997, ...

in November 2000 to celebrate "the Children of the New Millennium".

Refurbishment

As part of Dublin City Council's 'Liberties Greening Strategy', the park was identified for refurbishment in the 2010s. In July 2018, Dermot Foley Landscape Architects were commissioned by Dublin City Council to revive the existing park and reinvent it as a memorial. The park had been closed for many years prior to the restoration and elements of a previous design were damaged. The Flanders Fields memorial was installed as well as herbaceous ground cover planting and a canopy layer of viburnum farreri and

prunus × yedoensis ''Prunus'' × ''yedoensis'' (synonym ''Cerasus'' × ''yedoensis'') is a Hybrid (biology), hybrid cherry tree between ''Prunus speciosa'' (''Oshima cherry'') as father plant and Prunus itosakura, ''Prunus pendula'' f. ''ascendens'' (syn. ''Pr ...

. After being closed to the public for nearly a decade, due to anti-social behaviour such as public drinking and drug use, the Peace Park re-opened on 26 June 2019 after the refurbishment project and Flanders Fields memorial had been completed. The newly designed garden had also been raised with a ramped access so that it be fully accessible. Dublin City Council said that the aim of the memorial was "to bring people together in reflection about war and peace, about sacrifice and suffering, about tolerance and hope, about forgiveness and reconciliation".

Flanders Fields memorial

On 30 April 2019, a memorial to all those from the island of Ireland who died in

Flanders Fields Flanders Fields is a common English name of the World War I battlefields in an area straddling the Belgian provinces of West Flanders and East Flanders as well as the French department of Nord, part of which makes up the area known as French Flan ...

during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

was unveiled in the park. A ceremony took place to mark the occasion which was jointly organised by Dublin City Council and the government of

Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...

, Belgium. Soil from Flanders was integrated with Irish soil from all four provinces and placed within a circle of sandblasted Leinster

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

reflecting the circular design in the roof of the

Menin Gate The Menin Gate (), officially the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, is a war memorial in Ypres, Belgium, dedicated to the British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres Salient of World War I and whose graves are unknown. The m ...

war memorial A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war. Symbolism Historical usage It has ...

Ypres Ypres ( ; ; ; ; ) is a Belgian city and municipality in the province of West Flanders. Though the Dutch name is the official one, the city's French name is most commonly used in English. The municipality comprises the city of Ypres/Ieper ...

, Belgium. The memorial was covered with a grass sward and engraved with poetry from Irish

war poet War poetry is poetry on the topic of war. While the term is applied especially to works of the First World War, the term can be applied to poetry about any war, including Homer's ''Iliad'', from around the 8th century BC as well as poetry of th ...

Francis Ledwidge. Around the memorial, benches of Belgian blue stone were engraved with the crests of Leinster, Munster, Ulster and Connacht.

Controversies

At the January 2018 meeting of Dublin City Council's commemorations subcommittee, where the members were briefed on the proposal to incorporate Irish soil into the Flanders Fields memorial at the Peace Park, four members of the committee opposed the Flanders Memorial. It had been argued previously by councillors, including the former Lord Mayor

Mícheál Mac Donncha Mícheál Mac Donncha (born Michael McConkey) is an Irish Sinn Féin politician who served as the Lord Mayor of Dublin from 2017 to 2018. He has been a Dublin City Councillor since 2011. Mac Donncha as a child actor played a young version of th ...

, and the then current Lord Mayor Nial Ring, that it would be inappropriate to have a war memorial in a 'peace' garden or park. In a February 2018 meeting, the alternative option of placing it instead in the War Memorial Gardens,

Islandbridge Island Bridge (), formerly Sarah or Sarah's Bridge, is a road bridge spanning the River Liffey, in Dublin, Ireland which joins the South Circular Road to Conyngham Road at the Phoenix Park. Island Bridge and the surrounding area (often known ...

was explored but ultimately rejected. The choosing of 1988 as the year in which to celebrate the millennium of the founding of Dublin city was also not without its own controversy.

References

Sources