THE GARDEN OF REMEMBRANCE

This garden is usually packed but today I was the only person there.

Queen Elizabeth II laid a wreath in the Garden of Remembrance during her state visit in May 2011.

The Garden of Remembrance is a memorial garden in Dublin dedicated to the memory of "all those who gave their lives in the cause of Irish Freedom". It is located in the northern fifth of the former Rotunda Gardens in Parnell Square, a Georgian square at the northern end of O'Connell Street. The garden, which I really like, is in the form of a sunken cruciform water-feature. The focal point is a statue of the Children of Lir by Oisín Kelly, symbolising rebirth and resurrection, added in 1971.

Over the last few years every time that I visited there has been construction ongoing which can be a bit annoying but one good thing that has resulted from this work is that they have installed a ramp and a lift to allow wheelchair access to all sections of the park.

The Garden commemorates freedom fighters from various uprisings, including:

1798 rebellion of the Society of United Irishmen
1803 rebellion of Robert Emmet
1848 rebellion of Young Ireland
1867 rising of the Fenian Brotherhood
1916 Easter Rising of the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army
1919–21 Irish War of Independence of the Irish Republican Army


The site of the Garden is where the Irish Volunteers were founded in 1913, and where several leaders of the 1916 Rising were held overnight before being taken to Kilmainham Gaol. President Éamon de Valera opened the Garden in 1966 on the fiftieth anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising, in which he had been a commander.