[6] The demand for such Georgian townhouse residences south of the River Liffey had been fuelled by the decision of the then Earl of Kildare (later the Duke of Leinster) to build his Dublin home on the then undeveloped southside.

All the original 18th century properties in Merrion Square have survived to the present day except for Antrim House which was demolished to make way for the National Maternity Hospital in the 1930s.

Despite the square being largely occupied by commercial entities, there are still several residents, including fashion designer Louise Kennedy[9] and tycoon Dermot Desmond.

[11] However, following the Bloody Sunday shootings in Northern Ireland, a crowd of over 20,000 people converged on the site in protest and the building was burnt to the ground.

[14][15] The earliest plan of the park shows a double line of trees around the perimeter which was later enclosed by railings in the early years of the 19th century.

A Jardin Anglaise approach was adopted for the layout of the park with contoured grass areas, informal tree clumps, sunken curved paths and perimeter planting.

Irish-American sculptor Jerome Connor, best known for his work "Nuns of the Battlefield" in Washington D.C., designed the public art piece, "Eire".

In 2009, Dermot Ryan was criticised in the Murphy Report; in January 2010, Dublin City Council sought public views on renaming the Park.

Today they are located at Lumsden House, 29 Upper Leeson Street, Dublin 4 (see St John Ambulance archive for further info).