St. Stephen's Green
St. Stephen's Green ( Irish : Faiche Stiabhna ) is a public park in the middle of the Irish capital Dublin . It is directly adjacent to the south end of the pedestrian mall and shopping street Grafton Street .
The park is rectangular and enclosed on all sides by main roads. During the summer months there are regular free concerts and theater performances on the weekends. Changes in traffic management led to a drastic reduction in road traffic in 2004. A terminus of line B of the new Dublin tram ( Luas ) is just on the west side of the park. Plans that envisage excavating a large part of the park in the course of the expansion of the northern Dublin Metro line arouse strong fears that the associated interventions could irreversibly change the character of the park.
history
In the Middle Ages , St. Stephen's Green was a slightly swampy area on the outskirts of Dublin that was partially used as pastureland. In 1663 the Dublin Corporation decided to develop the area and sold the land on the edge of the complex as building land. The wall around the park was built a year later (1664).
In the 18th century, the park was the site of public hangings.
Most of the buildings on the park were built in the Georgian style in the 18th and 19th centuries . Only a few of them were replaced by modern buildings.
In 1814 control of St. Stephen's Green passed to a representative of the resident homeowners, who redesigned the park and replaced the wall with a fence. At that time, only residents were allowed to enter the facility. In 1877, at the request of Sir Arthur Guinness , the Irish administration decided to open the park to the public. He also financed the redesign of the park in 1880, which already roughly corresponds to its current form. The Guinness family had an apartment building on the edge of the site that now houses the Foreign Office .
During the Easter Rising in 1916, a group of leaders of the Irish Citizen Army, led by Michael Mallin and Constance Markiewicz, occupied parts of the park. They misused automobiles to build roadblocks around the park and dug defenses in the middle of the park. This was in contrast to the usual tactic across town of occupying buildings. The park occupation also turned out to be unwise in retrospect when part of the British Army took up positions in the Shelbourne Hotel on the northeast corner of the park, from which they could overlook the whole park and even shoot into the trenches. As a result of this development, the volunteers withdrew to the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland on the west side of the park.
Sights in and around the park
Iveagh House
Iveagh House on the south side was the assembly of two earlier houses (house numbers 80 and 81) under Benjamin Guinness in the 1860s. It was donated to the Irish state by the Guinness family in 1939 and is now the main body of the Foreign Office.
Newman House / University Church
Also on the south side is Newman House (nos. 85 and 86), named after John Henry Newman and the University Church . These house the Catholic University of Ireland , which was founded in 1854. This university is linked to University College Dublin .
Unitarian Church
See also: St Stephen's Green Church
This church was built in the Gothic style and is located on the west side of St. Stephen's Green.
St. Stephen's Green Shopping Center
At the south end of Grafton Street (on the west side of the park) is the mall, built in 1988. It was Ireland's largest shopping mall at the time.
Fusilier's Arch
Opposite the St. Stephen's Green Shopping Center is a triumphal arch from 1907, built on the model of the Arch of Titus in Rome . He commemorates members of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers who fell during the Boer War . It is also popularly known as Traitor's Arch.
The Three Fates
In the 1950s, the German government donated the sculpture created by Joseph Wackerle to the Irish people in memory of Operation Shamrock . At the suggestion of the pediatrician Kathleen Murphy , over 1000 orphans from Germany and Austria were accepted by Irish host families during the famine years after the Second World War.
At Stephen's Green Shopping Center
Fusilier's Arch
Other important buildings
Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
Also on the west side (# 123) is this school , one of five Irish medical colleges.
North side
On the north side of the park is the two clubs (originally men's clubs) Hibernian United Services Club (No. 8; closed in 2002) and University and Kildare Street Club (No. 17), as well as the historic Shelbourne Hotel .
Loreto College, St. Stephen's Green
One of Ireland's best private girls' schools is on the east side of the park (number 53).
St. Vincent's Hospital
Founded in 1834 by Mary Aikenhead and now in a southern part of Dublin, this hospital was housed in the buildings on the east side of the park near Leeson Street until 1965 .
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ The Irish Times : "The tearing of the Green" . April 26, 2008 (English; stub, subscription required)
Web links
Coordinates: 53 ° 20 ′ 17 " N , 6 ° 15 ′ 33" W.