Oasis in sea of change in Dublin

DUBLIN - As Ireland's property developers scramble to snap up every last square metre of prime Dublin real estate, a green oasis in the heart of this booming capital is standing firm against the tide of change.

A silent witness to Ireland's often turbulent history, St Stephen's Green is public park and outdoor museum, a buffer against the relentless march of a city in transition and a curator of its rich heritage.

"Everything is changing all around the people of Dublin but for them St Stephen's Green remains an anchor," said historian and tour guide Pat Liddy. "It's terribly important as a place that sits in the middle of change but does not itself change."

For a group of pensioners looking at the colourful Victorian garden at the centre of the 22-acre (9ha) park, Ireland's "Celtic Tiger" economic boom of the past decade has altered much of the surrounding city beyond recognition.

"It's like a madhouse beyond those gates," says 70-year-old Tom MacDonagh, pointing towards an archway leading to a shopping mall and Dublin's retail hub of Grafton St. "We come here for the silence, far from the maddening throng."

They are not alone. Gazing across the ornamental lake, three American students have been lured to St Stephen's Green by dense vegetation that, unlike other city-centre parks, rings its perimeter and creates a barrier to the world outside.

"It's very different from anything else," says 23-year-old Julia Licorish, visiting from Florida. "It's a very serene part of the city. Everything else around it is changing but this is somehow a way of keeping tradition going amid all the change."

The young tourists are intrigued by a park that this week celebrates 125 years as a public space and that has not always been so demure. Named after a lepers' hospital, it has also been used for public hangings and as a parade ground for troops.

Scattered throughout the green are monuments to remind the ambling visitor that the stresses of modern life are as nothing compared with the drama and complexity of Irish history.

"There's a tension to the commemorations because they are not all compatible," said Liddy, pointing out a bronze statue at one corner of the park representing Theobald Wolfe Tone, leader of a 1798 rebellion against British rule.

In another corner, however, stands Fusiliers' Arch, in memory of Dubliners who died fighting for Britain. Unlike a missing statue of Britain's King George II, the monument, also known as Traitors' Gate, survived the long struggle for independence.

It did not escape unscathed. The arch is pockmarked with bullet holes from the 1916 Easter Rising when insurgents took over the park.

However, not even a pitched battle could disrupt the life of a park whose superintendent was complimented for having "fed the birds in the green daily under considerable risk of being shot".

The park has changed little since it reopened to the public on July 27, 1880, thanks to the patronage of the Guinness dynasty who ensured its return to the people.

- REUTERS