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sets well-known events in the Park's history beside accounts of its
buildings and institutions, as well as obscure subjects like park rangers'
uniform regulations. Irish Times
Park remains both a part of and apart from the capital city of Dublin.
Lands were leased to Sir Edward Fisher who in 1611 built a country residence
on St Thomas’ Hill, later the Magazine Hill.
The area had a spring of clear water, which in Irish would be fionn uisce;
“phoenix” would be a near-enough anglicisation of this sound.
The house was called “The Phoenix” and the name remained.
Dublin Zoo began life in 1830.
Butler, the Duke of Ormonde, was appointed Lord Lieutenant or Viceroy
in 1644 by Charles I and re-appointed in 1661 by Charles II.
introduced deer, partridge and pheasant onto the lands.
perimeter wall was commissioned by Ormonde to encompass the park.
Phoenix House fell into decay and in 1735 a magazine was built for the
storage of arms and explosives for the Dublin regiments.
1745, the park was officially opened to the public and Lord Chesterfield,
the Lord Lieutenant planted chestnuts and elms along the central avenue,
which bears his name.
When in 1772, Sir John Blaquiere was named Bailiff of Phoenix Park he
received a four-roomed cottage, which he extended into a large Georgian
house. Lawyer Napper Tandy challenged Blaquiere in a Dublin court following
the latter’s annexation of some 30 acres of the park for his new
residence. The court found in favour of Blaquiere and stated:
It was only by leave of the King the citizens had liberty to recreate
themselves under restrictions such as not riding on cars, not bringing
in dogs or guns, and not sending their servants to air their horses during
the fencing month.
The nineteenth century saw the most extensive development of Phoenix Park.
Some few years after the Napoleonic Wars ended, and the prospect of a
French invasion of Ireland had receded, the Ordnance Survey took up residence
in the park, in Mountjoy Barracks, in 1824.
In 1842, a police depot was built for recruiting and training the Irish
Constabulary, which had been formed in 1836.
The People’s Flower Gardens were laid out in 1864 beside the park
gates and opposite the recently completed Wellington monument.
On the evening of 6 May 1882, Chief Secretary, Lord Frederick Cavendish
walked through Phoenix Park. His Under Secretary, Thomas Burke joined
him. They were stabbed to death by members of the Invincibles, a revolutionary
nationalist group, six of whom were hanged in Kilmainham the following
year for the killings.
Some 3,000 trees of all species were blown down in the park during the
great storm of 1903. The only other comparable loss of trees was in the
1980s when Dutch Elm disease carried away 2,000 trees.
Motor car speed trials in 1903 saw the world land speed record being broken
in Phoenix Park at speeds in excess of 84 mph at a time when a general
speed limit of 20 mph was in operation on public roads.
During the Easter Rising of 1916, thirty members of the Irish Volunteers
and Fianna Éireann captured the Magazine Fort on St Thomas’
Hill. They took guns and withdrew, after setting fires to blow up the
magazine’s ordinance; but the fuses burned out before reaching the
ammunition and little damage was caused.
In 1921, Viscount FitzAlan of Derwent, a Catholic, served as last of the
Irish viceroys and in 1922, the last Chief Secretary, Sir Harman Greenwood,
A new Irish constitution in 1937 provided that Ireland would have a President,
known as An t-Uachtarán, and an official residence, Áras
an Uachtaráin, the former Vice-Regal Lodge.
In May 1941, Dublin was bombed by German planes. One bomb fell in Phoenix
Park, beside the Dog Pond and the Phoenix Cricket Club. The blast reportedly
shattered windows at Áras an Uachtaráin and the American
Legation. The occupants of the pump house near the Dog Pond escaped injury
but the house had to be demolished. Buildings in the nearby Zoo were also
damaged by the blast.
In the mid-1950s the park welcomed the Rás Tailteann, the Irish
national cycle race, to its roads and it has been racing through the park
In 1997 the world-famous Tour de France took a slight diversion —
through Ireland and Phoenix Park.
A papal mass in 1979 saw almost one in three citizens of Ireland assembled
in Phoenix Park to see Pope John Paul II celebrate mass.
Three years later, the murder of nurse Bridie Gargan (27) in Phoenix Park
on 22 July 1982 shocked the nation. Her killer, Malcolm McArthur, attacked
her with a lump hammer while attempting to steal her car.
Irish soccer team under manager Jack Charlton were welcomed home in 1994
from the World Cup by hundreds of thousands of people on the Fifteen Acres.
1995, President Mary Robinson held a reception at Áras an Uachtaráin
for the Heaney family when Nobel prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney returned
to Ireland in triumph with his prize.
In 2002 the Irish World Cup soccer team under Mick McCarthy had a homecoming
in Phoenix Park, this time in front of the soccer pavilions, the crowds
standing on the park’s own pitches.
In 2003, athletes competing in the Special Olympics used the park for
Olympics cycling events, and the defence forces ran fundraising events
in the park to help the Olympic effort.
Members of the Garda Síochána for their part carried the
Special Olympics flame around Ireland in four torches until the runners
all arrived together at Áras an Uachtaráin to be greeted
at a reception by President Mary McAleese on 20 June.
Throughout the centuries, Phoenix Park has played host to the lowly and
the mighty alike. Its story continues as an integral part of Dublin and
the wider world.
more detail read
The comprehensive book on Dublin's own national park.