Exploring Pheonix Park’s history
Phoenix Park has been a staple of life in Dublin since it first opened as a deer hunting park in the 1660s. It was a place for the elites to meet, socialise and hunt together; this changed in 1747 when it opened to the public for the first time.
On the 23rd of February 2025, former Chief Park Superintendent John McCullen gave a free lecture in the Phoenix Park visitors center in which he went through the history of the park. I was among the attendees at this lecture, and I was transported back and shown the Phoenix Park as I had never seen it before.
For a long period in the parks history, management was not held exclusively by the Irish people, although you may expect management of the park to be mostly Irish or English, it was actually the Scottish who had a major impact on the management and running of the park. As McCullen says “The Scots were the best trained people in these islands”, they had a better education system making them more qualified than most Irish to run and manage the park. So, this meant that up until around 1923 all the park bailiffs, superintendents and gardeners were Scottish.
Sport has been a major feature of the park since the 1830s around this time Phoenix Cricket Club was founded by John Parnell. Phoenix Cricket Club was Ireland’s first ever cricket club and is still operating in the park to this day.
Another staple of the park is the polo club set up in 1873 by Mr. Horace Rochford who took up the sport when he was in his 60s. The club is considered to be one of the oldest in Europe and was the site of the “first fatality in polo” leading to the introduction of “health and safety measures such as helmets into the game”.
In 1890, Bohemians Football Club was founded in the North circular road gate lodge by members of the Royal Hibernian Military School. The founding meeting was attended by 18 young men, including Dudley Thomas Hussey, who chaired the meeting and had the casting vote on the new club’s name. The club played its first games in the Polo Grounds of the park.
In 1929 the International Grand Prix motor races were held in the park which was a series of three races held over three years until 1931. The races were incredibly successful over the three years no fatalities occurred however when there was a change of government, they decided that it would be “inappropriate” to continue hosting the events. According to McCullen the new government considered it to be “a rich man’s game”.
The park also has a very long history of use by the military, military maneuvers and practices were commonplace in the park before the 19th century. There were several military institutions present in and around the park which included the Royal Hibernian Military School for children who were orphaned, or whose father was on active military service abroad.
The Magazine Fort, constructed in 1736, was a major military institution from which small arms, munitions and gunpowder were distributed to other military barracks in the Dublin area.
The Office of Public Works (OPW) has plans to repair the Magazine Fort and open it up as a tourist attraction, A member of the OPW said the reopening may happen as early as June after phase 1 work is completed.
Mountjoy Cavalry Barracks and the Royal Military Infirmary were two further buildings constructed during the eighteenth century, in 1725 and 1786.
Mountjoy Barracks became the Irish headquarters of the Ordnance Survey in 1825, and Royal Hibernian Military School became Saint Mary’s Hospital. Military presence was replaced with police presence as in 1842 the Royal Irish Constabulary depot was built near the North Circular Road entrance to the park, and two police barracks were also built one at Ashtown Gate and the other at Parkgate Street.
History showcases how military relations have shaped the park. One example that McCullen points out is the funeral gate on Blackhorse Avenue which was “built in 1878 to facilitate military funerals from Marlborough Barracks” (currently McKee Barracks). This gate was built exactly opposite the military cemetery so that the funerals from the barracks could go out onto the north road of the Phoenix Park and still make it to the cemetery unhindered hence the name, the funeral gate.
In 350 years the park has accumulated a long and storied history, and its story is not likely to end anytime soon.
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