The Friends of St. Anne’s Pocket Park and artist Sophie von Maltzan have obtained a grant to replace the original timber sculptures made from Irish beech

In March 2016, the Pocket Park was officially opened. Children from “Little Learners” the local Montessori Preschool as well s neighbours attend the “Playparty”

A sculptural insect hotel designed by Sophie von Maltzan and installed as a trial prototype

A Cruinniu na nog project with entomologist Nessa Darcy, Sophie von Maltzan and children from the local LindsayRoad Primary school

Create , the national development agency for collaborative arts Ireland financed this staged inquiry into community engagement and the role of the public space, through a series of immersive, intergenerational community workshops & seminars with artists and professionals. The objective was to empower the community to reflect and voice their experiences with the Pocket Park and therefore raises awareness of the importance but also the difficulties that projects like this encounter, within the concept of sustainable and resilient cities.

Gathering opinions from passers-byes and users of the Pocket Park was part of the Community enquiry project. The quotations were written onto a canvas that is fixed against the back wall of the Pocket Park, visible to pedestrians walking by on the pavement.

Lindsay Road National School children spent 3 mornings with Entomologist Nessa Darcy and artist Sophie von Maltzan, exploring which insects live in the Pocket Park and then documenting them on Marine Ply timber sheets that were then fixed to the backwall of the Pocket Park. The children added phrases such as: What you call weeds, we call insect paradise”. This project was finances through Criunniu na nog funding.

This children’s book exchange shelf was suggested by the Friends of the Pocket Park group and designed and built by Martin Cahill. Initial worries of the shelf being vandalised or abused were proven wrong. The shelf is a big success among the young park visitors. The project was part of the “Community enquiry 2023, financed through a Create project award.

The strawberry plants and planting pockets were donated by a resident. The Friends of the Pocket Park installed it, added a watering system but it proved unsuccessful and was dismantled after a month. During the summer the Park gets warm and dry and watering plants ins not a solution for this community maintained Pocket Park.

On an afternoon on a June weekend, community members painted each other on translucent Perspex sheets. The portraits were then spray-painted from the back and fixed to the Pocket Park wall. This project was part of the “Community enquiry 2023, financed through a Create project award.

Spending an afternoon weaving willow structures is a huge success. Everyone can do it and the result is a success on many levels. The structures are beautiful and useful, as play elements and the community also built a crutch for the Cherry tree’s branch that was broken by children trying to reach the cherries.

“Community narratives” is a collection of community opinions and experiences with the Pocket Park.Over 20 interviews were conducted by Dr. Ruth Brennan. They were then edited by her, Aine Tyers and Sophie von Maltzan. They are available on this website and via a qr code, exhibited at the Pocket Park. This project was financed through a Create project award.

In 2017, the planting was still bare looking but it did not stop the birthday party, it was a joyous afternoon.

A hiphop teacher met the children w every afternoon during the first week of the Summer break.

#mytisart has began to exhibit and sell his art work from the Pocket Park and also the beautiful red brick wall on the junction of Drumcondra Road and St. Annes Road.

During the spring and the summer the Friends of The Pocket Park meet once a week to maintain the park. This means gardening, weeding, cutting back shrubs and also clearing rubbish, Rubbish is being dropped by people using the benches , but it also blows in from the street. The shrubs need to be cut back often as many community members are worried that people will relieve themselves

The Puppet show was developed by Puppeteer Martin Cahill, with Muireann Lyons, who developed the script from the conversations and interviews held with the community during the enquiry. This project was part of the “Community enquiry 2023, financed through a Create project award.

In 2023 the community met with urban designer Alan Mee and botanist Kieran Guinness to discuss the value of the Pocket Park with them. This project was part of the “Community enquiry 2023, financed through a Create project award.

Celebrating the Pocket Parks birthdays draws the community together. Like the other events it allows the community to meet and care about their neighbourhood together.

The local parade is performed by the Little Learners Montessori every year. Nessa and her team have been involved and hugely supportive of the Pocket Park since the first Pocket Park design meetings.

Every year the Friends of the Pocket Park decorate the Pocket Park. And the decorations never gets vandalised or stolen. Which was a fear before the first Christmas the Park was decorated in 2017.

The slide has been replaced twice since the Park was built. The first one was stolen in 2018, but a week after that happened a new slide appeared in the Park. Obviously donated by a community member. It was fixed in place by the the Friends of the Park. It was found burned in 2020, the only act of vandalism that ever happened in the Park. A new slide was put in place by a Dublin City Council contractor.

All the furniture in the Park is being produced locally, using native hardwood timber from trees that fell during storms. It gives the Pocket Park identity to have specific furniture and play elements. So many playgrounds in cities all over the world look the same, due to the identical play- elements.

The first balckboard was a painted sheet of marine ply. After 4 years of exposure to the elements it decayed so badly that it needed replacement. The Friends of the Pocket Park applied for Dublin City Council funding to do so in 2021

The table, recycled from a cable role, was part of the inital design. It was much used by the local residents, especially mothers chattinf while their children played. But it was also used by teenagers meeting in the evenings and homeless alcoholics and drug addicts. A resident living opposite the Park made the decision to remove the table a few days after the Friends of the Pocket Park had moved the table closer to the pavement in an attempt to discourage anti- social behaviour happening at the table.

Bulbs are provided by Dublin City Council every autumn. The Friends of the Pocket Park meet to dig them in over an afternoon. In spring the entire community enjoys the daffodils, Crocuses and Tulips.

The Puppet show developed during the community enquiry financed through Create funding. The Play was developed by Puppeteer Martin Cahill, with Muireann Lyons, who developed the script from the conversations and interviews held with the community during the enquiry