A history
and
guidebook

"This is an enthusiast's book."
RTÉ's Today with Pat Kenny

"Just the thing to get you in the mood for the Rolling Stones concert in August."
The Irish Times

A number of memorials, monuments and public sculptures stand in corners of the park to commemorate people who have gone before or to provide a focus for different areas of the park.

Some are so large they dominate the landscape, like the Wellington Monument, above, standing at sixty-three metres in height, which would have been even higher if the publicly subscribed funding had not run out. Some are not so large, like the bust of the nineteen-year-old Sean Heuston in the People’s Flower Gardens, which faces the gate on Fountain Road near Gough roundabout but they reflect events of momentous importance on the island of Ireland.

Some are gone, but their space remains and decisions have yet to be made on a new use for the vacated areas.

A statue of Lord Gough that used to dominate the first crossroads encountered in the park on the way in from Dublin city was taken down, in the 1950s, after several explosives assaults on it by nationalists.

Further up Chesterfield Avenue, the Phoenix Column stands in the middle of a roundabout in memory of Lord Chesterfield, the viceroy who in 1745 threw open the gates of the King’s deer park to the people.

It now yields height and visual impact to the huge cross erected at the time of the 1979 visit to the park of Pope John Paul II.

For more detail read

The comprehensive book on Dublin's own national park.

In the shops now

ISBN 1-904148-78-6
or order online here
  oOo

Copies of Phoenix Park a history and guidebook are a welcome addition to your corporate or conference goodybags.

Brendan Nolan has reported on Phoenix Park as a freelance journalist for several decades and was a professional observer at many of the events of the late 20th century related herein.

He was born in Chapelizod in a house beside the churchyard of Le Fanu and counted Phoenix Park as his personal rambling ground through his growing years and beyond.

"Brendan Nolan's comprehensive history and guidebook of Phoenix Park is a masterpiece." Community Voice.