At Home and Abroad

Dublin's Phoenix Park and its environs is a magical place. It is redolent with history, as well as containing a rich variety of wildlife. A stroll around the boundaries of the Park involves following in the footsteps of great historical characters from British wartime leader Winston Churchill to the founder of Irish Republicanism, Wolfe Tone and includes Robert the Bruce, Brian Boru, St Patrick, Wellington, etc. The presence of the large deer herd, an ancient Neolithic tomb, Viking graves and literary connections with James Joyce, Dean Jonathan Swift and Sheridan Le Fanu only adds to its timeless appeal. The villages which surround the Park are full of stories of ghosts, red light areas and memories of what was once the biggest Cattle Market in Ireland and Britain. The echoes of Empire and of Ireland's long struggle to take its place among the Nations of the Earth are everywhere in evidence. In this publication I can only hope I have managed to do justice to the Phoenix Park Way.