A historic gate at Dublin’s Phoenix Park, which was removed last September after it was struck by a Dublin City Council lorry, will be reinstated this month, the Office of Public Works (OPW) has said.
The 190-year-old Cabra Gate was damaged when the council lorry became wedged in the narrow opening as it tried to leave the park. The lorry was freed but, according to the OPW, the gate’s “structural integrity” was “compromised” and had to be removed for conservation assessment.
The gate was one of several historic entrances to the park which underwent a three-year conservation projected completed in 2021 at a cost €800,000.
Seven sets of gates were removed at the time of Pope Francis’s open air Mass in the park in August 2018, and the OPW determined they needed “significant refurbishment” before replacement. The gates had previously been removed and reinstalled for the Eucharistic Congress in 1932 and again in 1979 for the visit of Pope John Paul II.
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Following the pope’s 2018 visit, plain stainless steel security gates were erected as a temporary measure. The project was due originally for completion in 2019, but was delayed until 2020. Work restrictions associated with Covid-19 meant the gates were not fully replaced until mid-2021.
In September last a city council lorry carrying construction material tried to leave the park using the Cabra Gate, having entered through a different wider gate. The front cab of the vehicle passed through the gate posts but the body became jammed between the two iron gates, damaging the gate to the left of the lorry.
The OPW said a specialist iron works company has completed repairs to the gate and it is ready for reinstatement. However, the work to rehang the gate will involve a two-day closure of the entrance, so the OPW has decided to wait until after the Wild Lights shows in Dublin Zoo have finished. The final lights display is due to be held on Sunday.
“Dublin City Council have agreed to cover the cost of repairs and to undertake any traffic management for the works associated with the repositioning of the gates,” the OPW said.
The final costs of the repairs will be determined after the gate has been reinstated.
The Cabra entrance had been designated as part of the route of the park’s first public bus service, but in March 2022 the project was put on hold when it emerged it was too narrow for buses.
The new bus route was to run from Heuston station to Broombridge station in Cabra. A bus route eventually began operating in the park in May of last year. However, this service only operates from Park Gate Street to the Phoenix Park Visitor Centre and back, using the far wider entrance at the east end of Chesterfield Avenue, which no longer has gates.
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