CELEBRATING A NEIGHBOURHOOD WITH DEEP LITERARY CONNECTIONS
In the 1950s, this was the most bohemian community in the city. Brendan Behan, Mary Lavin and Flann O’Brien lived and wrote in this neighbourhood.
Making artists part of the community
Since 2019, we’ve welcomed 15 established and emerging Irish artists. Now we’ve created three permanent studios at Wilton Park and we’re partnering with the RHA to offer them rent-free to artists.
It’s inspiring female writers
Mary Lavin was one of the most influential writers of her generation. A pioneer of women’s writing in the 1950s.
We are dedicating a beautiful new public square in Wilton Park to celebrate her. This is the first public place in Ireland named after a female Irish writer.
We hope that Mary Lavin Place will introduce new readers to her work and encourage a new generation of female writers.
Dedicating space for a writer-in-residence quarters
Our commitment to building on Mary Lavin’s legacy will be realised by the establishment of the IPUT Literary Residency, which offers the selected writer an apartment in the heart of Dublin for a year to pursue a literary project.
The residency has been selected in association with Colm Tóibín and Cormac Kinsella. Wilton Park is part of the area of Dublin known as Baggotonia, famous for its literary associations, and is adjacent to newly created Mary Lavin Place, the first public square in Ireland to be named for an Irish female writer. The IPUT Literary Residency along with the IPUT Artists Studios at Mary Lavin Place, are part of IPUT Real Estate’s commitment to making spaces for arts and culture to thrive in Dublin City Centre.
Dipping the Other Wing
The park features a beautiful new abstract sculpture by Eilis O’Connell. Dipping the Other Wing was commissioned by IPUT in memory of the writer Mary Lavin.
Excerpt from
“One Evening” by Mary Lavin 1967
By the time he’d reached the street that went down to the canal alongside which he lived, he’d got up such speed that, as a bird on the hover dips a wing, he had only to drop his shoulder and the bike turned into the sloping street. Then, near the end, dipping the other wing, he swept into Wilton Place.
Bringing art into the community
We’re turning Wilton Park into a public gallery for Irish artists.
The new 7-metre covered street has a statement ceiling by stained glass artist James Earley.
And the photo benches scattered around the streets will feature art created on-site at Wilton Park studios.
As part of our commitment to creating cultural space in the city, we have partnered with the RHA to create three permanent artist in residence studios within the Wilton Park development. In conjunction with the RHA, we will be announcing three new year-long residencies in early 2025.
Forging new cultural partnerships
Wilton Park is a short stroll from some of the most important arts institutions and organisations in the country. And we’re using their help and expertise to guide us, as we turn this neighbourhood into a new cultural hub.
We’ve already been working closely with the RHA, the National Concert Hall and the Graphic Studio Gallery. And we’re getting ready to bring exciting music, art and literary events to Wilton Park’s new public spaces.
It presented me, and everyone I worked with, with an incredible opportunity that is rare in a city like Dublin.
A walk in Baggotonia
Is there something in the water? The stretch of the city at Wilton Park, along and around the banks of Dublin’s Grand Canal has seen such a concentration of writers, poets, artists and thinkers, it is something of a wonder. Inspiring the likes of Mary Lavin, Patrick Kavanagh, Elizabeth Bowen, Maeve Binchy, JP Donleavy and more, it almost seems as if fresh ideas and well turned phrases may be waiting around every corner.
Follow Dublin’s literary footsteps along the Grand Canal, with some artworks along the way.