[2][3][4] It includes large areas of grassland and tree-lined avenues, and since the 17th century has been home to a herd of wild fallow deer.

[7] After the Normans conquered Dublin and its hinterland in the 12th century, Hugh Tyrrel, 1st Baron of Castleknock, granted a large area of land, including what now comprises the Phoenix Park, to the Knights Hospitaller.

On the restoration of Charles II of England, his Viceroy in Dublin, the Duke of Ormond, established a royal hunting park on 2,000 acres (810 ha) of the land in 1662.

With management being taken over by the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, the renowned English Landscape architect, Decimus Burton, was retained to design an overall plan for the public areas of the park.

The Chief Secretary for Ireland (the British Cabinet minister with responsibility for Irish affairs), Lord Frederick Cavendish and the Under-Secretary for Ireland (chief civil servant), Thomas Henry Burke, were stabbed to death with surgical knives while walking from Dublin Castle.

[11][12] During the Emergency thousands of tons of turf were transported from the bogs to Dublin and stored in high mounds along the main road of the park.

[16] The park is split between three civil parishes: Castleknock to the northwest, Chapelizod to the south and St James' to the east.

[18] The Papal Cross at the edge of Fifteen Acres was erected as a backdrop for the outdoor mass celebrated there by Pope John Paul II on 29 September 1979, the first day of his pastoral visit to Ireland.

[19] When John Paul died in 2005, devotees gathered at the Papal Cross, praying and leaving flowers and other tokens of remembrance.

Designed by Robert Smirke, there are four bronze plaques cast from cannon captured at the Battle of Waterloo—three of which have pictorial representations of Wellington's career while the fourth has an inscription at the base of the obelisk.

A second notable monument is the "Phoenix Column" (shown in the header photograph above), a Corinthian column carved from Portland Stone located centrally on Chesterfield Avenue, the main thoroughfare of the park, at the junction of Acres Road and the Phoenix, the main entrance to Áras an Uachtaráin.

[20] A contemporary account described it in the following terms: "About the centre of the park is a fluted column thirty feet high, with a phoenix on the capital, which was erected by the Earl of Chesterfield during his viceregality.

"[21] (1747) There is also a monument to commemorate Lord Cavendish and Thomas Henry Burke, who were killed in the park by the Irish National Invincibles.

Restoration began in 1989 and it is located beside the visitor centre which houses interpretive displays on the 5,500 years of park and area history.

They display Victorian horticulture, including ornamental lakes, children's playground, picnic area and bedding schemes.

There is a plaque in honour of the Irish sculptor Jerome Connor on Infirmary Road, overlooking the gardens which he frequently visited.

The Magazine Fort in the southeast of the park marks the location where Phoenix Lodge was built by Sir Edward Fisher in 1611.

In 1734 the house was demolished when the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset directed that a powder magazine be provided for Dublin.

In July and August 2006, the Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney, issued three orders exempting two new community nursing units, to be built at St. Mary's Hospital in the park, from the usual legally required planning permission, despite the Phoenix Park being a designated and protected national monument.

Music concerts have been performed in the park by such acts as Coldplay, Duran Duran, Robbie Williams, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ian Brown, Justice, Kanye West, Arcade Fire, Tom Waits, Snow Patrol, Florence and the Machine, Swedish House Mafia, Snoop Dogg, Tinie Tempah, Calvin Harris, the Stone Roses and Ed Sheeran.