The Irish National War Memorial Gardens (Irish: Gairdíní Cuimhneacháin Cogaidh Náisiúnta na hÉireann ) is an Irish war memorial in Iceland, Dublin, dedicated “to the memory of 49.400 Irish soldiers who gave their lives in World War II, 1914-1918”, [1] of the 300,000 irish who have served in all armies.

Memorial Gardens also celebrate all the other Irish men and women who at that time served, fought and died in the Irish regiments of the Allied armies, the British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, South African and American armies in support of the Triple Entente’s war effort against the Central Powers.

History

Main article: Republic of Ireland and First World War

Cosgrave who was very interested in the Memorial to fruition met Sir Andrew Jameson, a senator and member of the Committee on 9 December 1930 and suggested the current location. At the time, known as the “Long Meadows Estates” There are about 60 acres (24 ha) in extent stretching parallel along the southern shore effluents Liffey from Iceland to Chapelizod. [1] His proposal was adopted by the Committee on 16 December 1931. Cosgrave said then that “. … This is a big issue for Remembrance and Honour to the dead, and there must always be a matter of interest to the head of government to ensure that a project so dear to a large section of the population should be a success “ . [ Citation needed ] after a meeting with over 100 representatives from all parts of Ireland July 17, 1919 was a fund created to consider the plans and designs for a permanent memorial “to commemorate all those Irish men and women killed in the first World war”. [1] a general committee was formed in November 1924 to pursue proposals for a spot in Dublin. For technical and administrative reasons, it was not until the meeting March 28, 1927 Shelbourne Hotel which Merrion Square, or St. Stephen’s Green, was suggested. A debate in Free State Senate failed to resolve the deadlock. WT Cosgrave, President of the Irish Free State Executive Council appointed since Cecil Lavery set up a “War Memorial Committee” to bring the memory process. [ Citation needed ]

Major General William Hickie says “Memorial is an All-Ireland” . A generous gift was sanctioned by the Irish government in one eleven point agreement with the Committee on December 12, 1933 in Dublin City Council Office of Public Works (OPW) has already started work on 164 men in 1932. [ citation needed]

In the adverse political conditions in the 1930s, Éamon de Valera acknowledged government still motives Memorial and made valuable contributions to the state. The cabinet approved the text in English and Irish.[ Citation needed ] Many difficulties arose in 1937 for WM Committee in terms of plants, trees and the need to obtain a completion certificate from the Office of Public Works, which finally issued in January 1938. [ Citation needed ] before any official opening can be communicated to the threat of war in Europe complicated matters further. A meeting with the Prime Minister on May 10, 1939 discussed postpone the proposed opening on the last Sunday in July.World War II when intervened to delay this further. [ Citation needed ]

Design

Designed by the great memorialist Sir Edwin Lutyens already landscaped designed several locations in Ireland and around Europe, is unique among the many war memorials he created the world. [1] He found it a delightful place.The Sunken Garden of Remembrance surrounds a Stone of Remembrance, Irish granite symbolizing an altar, which weighs seven and a half tons. The dimensions of this are identical to the First World War memorials in the whole world, and is in line with the Great Cross of Sacrifice and Central Avenue. [1] Opposite the Phoenix Park obelisk, located about three kilometers from the center of Dublin, on the grounds that gradually slope upwards against Kilmainham Hill. Old chronicles describe Kilmainham Hill as the camp of Brian Boru and his army before the last decisive battle of Clontarf 23 April 1014. The Memorial was among the last to be erected to the memory of those who sacrificed their lives in the First World War (Canada’s National War Memorial was opened 1939), and is “a symbol of Remembrance in memory of a nation of victims”. [2] the elaborate layout includes a central Sunken Rose Garden consists of a committee of prominent growers, various terraces, pergolas, lawns and roads lined with impressive park lock of hair, and two pairs Book Rooms in granite, representing the four provinces of Ireland, and contains illuminated volumes recording the names of all the dead. [1]

In the northern part of the garden overlooking the River Liffey stands a domed temple. This also marks the beginning of the avenue that leads gently uphill to step includes the Stone of Remembrance. On the floor of the temple is an excerpt from “War Sonnett II: Safety” by Rupert Brooke:

“We have found safety with all things immortal,
Winds, and morning, tears of men and merriment,
the deep night, and birdsong, and the clouds fly,
and sleep, and freedom, and autumn earth.”

Construction

There was no disagreement in its building – the workers were so drawn from the unemployed to 50 percent before World War ex-British Army and 50 percent ex-Irish Army men. To provide as much work as possible to use mechanical equipment was limited, and even granite blocks of 7 and 8 tons from Ballyknocken and Barnaculla was assaulted in place with primitive tackles by poles and ropes. Upon completion and opening in 1939 (which was postponed) managers responsible said: “It is with a spirit of confidence that we commit this noble memorial of Irish valor to the care of the government of Ireland” . [3]

Commitment, neglect and renewal

Although the commemoration of fallen by the Irish British military veterans and families took place at the site for a few years in the late 1940s and 1950s, with some impressive attendance, [4] the cultural situation in the state, and its nationally dominant ideological negative view of Ireland’s role in the second World war one, and those who had volunteered to fight in World war 2, prevent the garden from the civic opened and dedicated.

The garden was the subject of two Irish Republican paramilitary attacks. On Christmas night in 1956 a bomb was placed at the base of the War Stone and memorial crosses and detonated, but the Wicklow broken granite withstood the blast with minor injuries. Another attempt was made to bring down with a bomb detonation in October 1958, which once again failed, resulting in superficial injuries. [5]

A subsequent lack of funding from the government to provide its up-keep and care fit to fall into disrepair and vandalism during the following decades, to the point that the late 1970s it had become a place for caravans and animals of Irish Member ~ ~ POS = TRUNC community, with Dublin Corporation’s sophanterings offices use it as a dumping ground for the city’s waste. [6] Furthermore, fifty years of storms and the elements had left its mark, with structural damage unrepaired parts of the garden decoration.

In the mid-1980s, the economic and cultural changes happen in Ireland, which facilitated the renewal of urban decay in Dublin, and the beginning of a change in public perception of her former Irish revolution, national history and identity, which led to a project of restoration work to renew the park and the garden to its former glory of the office of public works, co-financed by the National War Memorial Committee. 10 September 1988 fully restored Gardens was re-opened to the public, and formally dedicated by representatives of the four largest churches in Ireland, half a century after its creation.

Official ceremonial events at the garden

  • A state memorial to mark the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme July 1, 2006 participated in the Irish President Mary McAleese, the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, members of the Oireachtas, senior representatives of all political parties in Ireland, the diplomatic corps of the allies in the First World War, delegates from Ulster, representatives of the four largest churches, and is accompanied by a guard of honor in the Irish army and the army Band.
  • On May 18, 2011, Queen Elizabeth II and President of Ireland, Mrs. Mary McAleese, who wreaths in honor of the Irish dead of the First World War one and World War 2 at a ceremony in the garden during the first state visit by a British monarch to the Irish Republic. [7]
  • On 9 July 2016 a state ceremony to mark the centenary of the Battle of the Somme took place in the gardens, with Mr. Prime Minister Enda Kenny in the presence and the President of Ireland, Mr. Michael D. Higgins, a garland honor of the soldiers in Ireland who lost their lives during its course. [8]

Roll of Honour

The granite paved pergolas surround the garden lights volumes recording the names of all the dead, and was once the public, even if the threat of vandalism now have had these Book Rooms closed except for visits by appointment, which can be viewed digitally in a branch office.

A wooden cross, the Ginchy Cross, built by the 16th (Irish) Division and originally erected on the Somme to commemorate the 4,354 men of the 16th who died in two connectors, located in the same byggnad.Tre granite copies of this cross is erected in places that are released by the Irish divisions – Guillemont and Messines-Wytschaete in Belgium and Thessaloniki in Greece.

Protection

The Irish National War Memorial Gardens is now managed by the Government Office of Public Works in conjunction with the National War Memorial Committee

Additional Great War Irish memorial, in the form of an All-Ireland trip settlement was jointly opened in 1998 by Mary McAleese, President of Ireland, Queen Elizabeth II and Albert II, King of the Belgians on the island of Ireland Peace Park, Messines, Flanders, Belgium.

  • Garden of Remembrance
  • Grange Gorman Military Cemetery
  • Other major war memorials in Ireland:
    • Island of Ireland Peace Park Messines, Belgium.
    • Menin Gate memorial Ypres, Belgium.
    • Ulster Tower Memorial Thiepval, France.

Notes

  1. ^ Jump up to: abcdef Duchas The Heritage Service Guide visits to the garden, from the Office of Public Works
  2. Jump up ^ British Legion plant, Irish Free State Souvenir Edition 1925-1935, National Library of Ireland, LO.
  3. Jump up ^ Henry Edward D. Harris (Major) The Irish regiments in World War I , page 210. Mercier Press Cork (1968), the National Library of Ireland Dublin
  4. Jump up ^ ‘Come to me, Dublin Life & Culture “September 9, 2013 online magazine article. https://comeheretome.com/2013/09/09/failed-attempts-on-the-war-memorial-gardens-islandbridge/
  5. Jump up ^ ‘Come to me, Dublin Life & Culture “September 9, 2013 online magazine article” failed attempts at War Garden Island Bridge’.https://comeheretome.com/2013/09/09/failed-attempts-on-the-war-memorial-gardens-islandbridge/
  6. Jump up ^ ‘Ireland’s Great War, “with Kevin Myers (Pub. Lilliput Press, 2014).
  7. Jump up ^ ‘Sombre memory of the war dead in the hush of the Island, “” Irish Times “19 May 2011. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0519/1224297286972.html
  8. Jump up ^ “heroic death in Ireland recalled the Somme memorial”, “The Irish Times, July 9, 1916 http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/heroic-dead-of-ireland-recalled-at-somme-commemoration-1.2716862