Garden of Rememberance

, Florence, Italy]] sculpture]] 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. World War II and the use of the site to erect a temporary paediatric unit during a period of increased infant mortality in the 1940s delayed the construction of the garden. During this time, the site was also considered for the construction of a new national concert hall. The Office of Public Works launched a competition for a garden of remembrance proposal in January 1946. In December 1950, it was announced that architect, Dáithi Hanly, has been selected as the designer. Final costs…

The garden is in the form of a sunken cruciform water-feature, constructed by John Sisk to Hanley's revised designs. The water feature is lined with tile mosaics with designs featuring spears, shields, and swords. Hanley had originally included space for a sculpture, but had intended for it to be of Éire. Its focal point is a statue of the Children of Lir by Oisín Kelly, symbolising rebirth and resurrection, added in 1971, cast in the Ferdinando Marinelli Artistic Foundry of Florence, Italy. The delay between the engagement of Kelly in 1959, and the installation of the statue in 1971 was due to Kelly's development of his own ideas inspired by W. B. Yeats' writing and the story of the…