An Irishman’s Diary: Finding the memorial to the victims of the Invincibles
Frank McNally on a most discreet memorial
A cross etched in the grass – the memorial to Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Henry Burke, killed in the Phoenix Park by the Invincibles. It is one of the most discreet memorials you will ever see.
I must have walked, run, or cycled every corner of the Phoenix Park over the years. But until recently, I’d have sworn that among the multiple heritage signs and memorials scattered around the 1,752 acres, there was no marker anywhere to the most notorious incident in the park’s history, the 1882 murders of Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Henry Burke.
Then I thought to check with Senan Molony, who wrote a book about the event some years ago. He assured me that, on the contrary, there was a cross cut into the grass embankment where the two men died, on the side of the main road opposite Áras an Úachtaráin. Then the Viceregal Lodge, it was from this building that the killings were half-witnessed.