page_title: St Stephen's Green
section_title: Park layout
hierarchical_section_title: St Stephen's Green / Park layout
caption_attribution_description: English: Fountain with the Three Fates in St Stephen's Green, Dublin Deutsch: Nornenbrunnen in St Stephen's Green, Dublin
context_page_description: St Stephen's Green is a public park located in the city centre of Dublin, Ireland. The current landscape of the park was designed by William Sheppard. It was officially re-opened to the public on Tuesday, 27 July 1880 by Lord Ardilaun. The park is adjacent to one of Dublin's main shopping streets, Grafton Street, and to a shopping centre named after it, while on its surrounding streets are the offices of a number of public bodies as well as a stop on one of Dublin's Luas tram lines. It is often informally called Stephen's Green. At 22 acres, it is the largest of the parks in Dublin's main Georgian garden squares. Others include nearby Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Square.
  The park is rectangular, surrounded by streets that once formed major traffic arteries through Dublin city centre, although traffic management changes implemented in 2004 during the course of the Luas works have greatly reduced the volume of traffic. These four bordering streets are called, respectively, St Stephen's Green North, St Stephen's Green South, St Stephen's Green East and St Stephen's Green West.
context_section_description: While the central park of St Stephen's Green is one of three ancient commons in the city, its current layout owes much to the restorations of the 1800s (see History above).
  The grounds are roughly rectangular, measuring (approximately) 550 by 450 metres, and are centred on a formal garden.
   
  One of the more unusual aspects of the park lies on the north west corner of this central area, a garden for the blind with scented plants, which can withstand handling, and are labelled in Braille.
  Further north again (and spanning much of the length of the park) is a large lake. Home to ducks and other water fowl, the lake is fed by an artificial water fall, spanned by O'Connell bridge, and fronted by an ornamental gazebo. The lakes in the park are fed from the Grand Canal at Portobello.
  To the south side of the main garden circle is more open heath surrounding a bandstand, and often frequented by lunching students, workers and shoppers on Dublin's sunnier days.
  There is also a playground (separated into junior and senior areas) which was refurbished in 2010.
  The park once featured a statue of King George II on horseback (erected in 1758) until it was blown up in 1937 by Irish Republicans, the day after the coronation of George VI.
  Other notable features include:
  the Fusiliers' Arch at the Grafton Street corner which commemorates the Royal Dublin Fusiliers who died in the Second Boer War.
  a fountain representing the Three Fates inside the Leeson Street gate. The statue was designed by Joseph Wackerle in bronze in 1956. It was a gift from the German people in thanks for Irish help to refugee children following World War II. Up to five hundred children found foster-homes in Ireland in a project named Operation Shamrock.
  a seated statue of Lord Ardilaun on the western side, the man who gave the Green to the city, facing the Royal College of Surgeons which he also sponsored (again, see History above)
  the Yeats memorial garden with a sculpture by Henry Moore
  a bust of James Joyce facing his former university at Newman House
  a memorial to the Fenian leader Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa near the Grafton Street entrance
  a bronze statue at the Merrion Row corner of Theobald Wolfe Tone, the leader of the 1798 rebellion.
  a memorial to the Great Famine of 1845–1850 by Edward Delaney
  a bust of Constance Markievicz on the south of the central garden (see History above)
  a statue of Robert Emmet standing opposite his birthplace (now demolished) at No 124.
  a memorial bust of Thomas Kettle, fatality of the Great War. The attempt to erect a commemorative portrait bust of Kettle was beset by controversy until it was finally placed, without official unveiling, in the centre section.
caption: Three Fates statue
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