The political history of the Phoenix Park
I stared this piece intending it to be little more than an ad for this Maydays anarchist picnic in the Phoenix park (details follow) with perhaps a little bit of context thrown in. But suddenly I found myself carried away by the political geography of this park which was after all originally built as a Deer park for a discarded mistress of Charles II (hence the high wall). If you know even a little of that history the park becomes a different place and suddenly the events of Mayday 2004 fall into a greater context of political protest and the control of space.
One year ago, on Mayday 2004, the summit of the EU heads of state took place in Farmleigh House in the Pheonix Park. The entire park was filled with surveillance cameras, ringed with fences, draped with barbed wire, buzzed by helicopters, rigged with motion detectors and surrounded with riot police. In the end water cannons were deployed to keep a protestors out of the park
History is normally written by the winners and it is common to find each new generation of radicals having to rediscover the stories of those who went before them. Thus, it is not surprising that many of those who protested last year probably were unaware of the history of battles between radical movements and the state that the park played host to in the past.
While the park hosts many of the symbols of power in Ireland - past and present - from the monument to the arch-reactionary Wellington, to the US-ambassador's residence and the Garda Headquarters, it has also seen its fair share of opposition. The invincibles assasinated the British Secretary there in 1882, it was the site of many early 20th century trade union ralies and the magazine fort in the park was captured at the start of the 1916 rising and was raided again by the IRA in 1939. The phoenix park is, in many ways, a symbolic battleground for the soul of Ireland.
In recent years radical movements in Ireland have re-energised Mayday in Dublin. This year, even without the pomp and grandeur of the EU heads of state, a series of radical events are planned to span the weekend. A festival of radical opposition that is once again bubbling to the surface. And once again the Phoenix Park is on the menu.
Mayday Radical Events: Anarchist 1st of May picnic in Phoenix Park | DCTU May Day Demonstration - Solidarity with Migrant Workers including a Get up stand up block to help organise the unorganised | Reclaim the Streets
The Phoenix Park and Mayday - a Long History
Did you spend Mayday last year trying to get into the Phoenix Park only to discover it filled with surveillance cameras, ringed with fences, draped with barbed wire, buzzed by helicopters, rigged with motion detectors and surrounded with riot police? Maybe you even got a blast from a water cannon.
It wasn't just you; the working class communities that surround much of the park were also not only excluded from it but virtually locked down for 12 hours. Kids coming in and out of the estates were searched and families turned back by squads of riot cops yelling 'hold the line'. All so 25 rulers could eat without the distant sound of angry drums being carried over the park wall.
Reclaim the park
So this Mayday lets go back to the park and have ourselves a picnic free of all that hassle and madness.
This will be at least the fourth anarchist picnic held in the park. But the tradition of using the Phoenix Park for radical gatherings goes back to the Land League. At one point the government had tried to ban them meeting in the Park and Michael Davitt threatened to lead a march to pull down the gates if they were shut in the Land Leagues face. In fact you can even go back further if your like, the largest mobilisation of the Irish Volunteers happened in 1882 in the park near the present day papal cross. The debates that took place during and around these mobilisations were to form part of the basis of the United Irishmen and the radical democratic risings of 1798 and 1803.
In 1914 the Irish Trade Union Congress annual meeting was preceded by a huge rally of workers in the park - the bitter defeat of the lockout had just passed but this demonstrated that the unions were not yet beaten. The Irish Citizens Army attended protest meetings in the park in 1915 - with their guns. Even the idea of radicals using the Park to celebrate May Day is not new - at the start of the last century it was the frequent destination for Dublin workers out to mark May Day. In a 1915 James Connolly reported that soldiers had tried to stir up trouble with the trade union May Day marchers in the park.
Mayday has been a day of celebration of anarchist resistance since the 1860's. Both because it is a traditional day for workers of the land and factory to skive off and because it celebrates the lives of our comrades who were martyred in Chicago in 1887 after the police riot of May 1886. That riot was in response to the growing movement for the reduction of the working day to 8 hours which had seen the workers of Chicago come out on strike. Since then it has sometimes been a day of protest, sometimes a day of parties and surprisingly often a day of picnics. The left and union movement today seems to have been drained of the sense of fun it once held but events like RTS ensure that this traditions is also upheld. And the picnic in the park can form a useful hinge between the union march and 'Stand up for your Rights' action the day before and the Reclaim the Streets on the day after.
So this year we will be protesting on the 30th, picnicking on the 1st and partying on the 2nd. This Mayday come along and join us in the park. Bring a kite, a football or a frizbee. Bring something to eat and drink not just for yourself but that you can also share with others. Bring your kids or your parents or both.
Meet with reaction
We'll meet up at 1pm at one site of reaction in the park, the giant obelisk erected for the Duke of Wellington. This reminds us that the park has not only played a role in radical politics in Ireland but is also a home of reaction. Today it contains the Garda HQ, the Presidents palace, the US Ambassadors residence and the Papal Nuncios residence to name four. The Royal Irish Constabulary staged its final parade in Phoenix Park before disbanding.
Wellington was not only a misanthrope and an anti-Catholic bigot but also part of the suppression of the radical workers movement in Britain. These movement's demands included the reduction of the working day to 10 hours. This is a curious link through history with the anarchists of Chicago who were executed for leading the struggle for the 8 hour day but the park contains many curious links some more of which I will mention here.
Wellington was brought into the cabinet in 1815 to help suppress the wave of radical protests that had broken out at the end of the Napolonic wars. August 1819 saw the Peterloo massacre in Manchester when a mass demonstration of around 200,000 which included "bands and a series of embroidered banners carried by friendly societies and fledgling unions" was attacked by the cavalry leaving 11 dead and 500 injured. Some 10 years later when Wellington visited Manchester his carriage was stoned by Manchester workers because of his role in the Peterloo massacre. The Iron Duke - so called because he had bars put on all the windows of his house - was Irish, although he didn't like to advertise that fact.
Peterloo set off a wave of protests across Britain, which culminated in the 1820 rising in Scotland. "Ordinary people from all over an increasingly industrial Scotland had been inspired to rise and overthrow the state in order to secure their rights and better working conditions." This included on April 3rd what is probably one of the first general strikes in history as "people from many different trades, but especially weaving, stopped work. They were not only refusing to work, but were in many cases preparing for war. Reports flooded in of groups of men engaged in military drills, and making weapons such as pikes from any material that could be obtained." Something to remember for all of us planning to go with Dissent to Scotland this summer to protest the G8 - it didn't start in Seattle - it won't end in Gleneagles.
Meet with rebellion
We'll leave the Wellington monument at 1.30 to head for the area behind the magazine fort. This is a nice quiet bit of the park with plenty of room for running around - if you know where it is you could head straight there but it would be nice to go across country as a group from the Wellington monument. You can also get there by bike or car if your mobility is limited.
The magazine fort was built in 1735. Jonathan Swift wrote that:
"Now's here's a proof of Irish sense
Here Irish wit is seen
When nothing's left that's worth defence,
We build a Magazine."
It happened in the Phoenix Park all in the month of May,
Lord Cavendish and Burke came out for to see the polo play.
James Carey gave the signal and his handkerchief he waved,
Then he gave full information against our Fenian blades.
The platform at Peterloo - note the 'Caps of Liberty' also used in Ireland in 1798
A cartoon from the time of Wellington putting his sword on the side of repression