Elizabeth Morgan explains the principles followed in restoring the set-piece of the 17th-century gardens of the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham within their architectural setting.
The Formal Gardens, also known as the Master’s Gardens, lie directly below the terrace of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham’s (RHK) north front. The gardens formed an important feature of the original site layout as noted in Hospital Minute Books of 6 March 1695, when the governors had agreed that the south wall to the hospital garden be ‘broken down’ and that the east and west walls be altered ‘so that the garden may lye all open to the north part of the Hospital for the greater grace to the house’.
Janet Mullarney’s sculptures perform as metaphors, not portraits, writes Cliodhna Shaffrey