The Irish National War Memorial Gardens commemorate the 49,400 Irish soldiers who died in the First World War. Designed by Edwin Lutyens and completed in 1939, they are among his finest garden designs — formal stone pergolas frame bookrooms containing illuminated manuscripts listing the names of the fallen, and the sunken rose gardens are maintained to the same high standard as when they opened.
The gardens occupy a quiet stretch of the Liffey south bank at Islandbridge, and are almost never crowded. They make a moving and beautiful detour from the Kilmainham Gaol or IMMA.