Even amid the showers, parks offer a taste of the country in the city. But why do people go to parks and what do they do there? This week, Róisín Inglechecks out the Phoenix Park in Dublin.
'The best thing about parks and the reason we use them so much is that they are free," says Camilla Fitzsimons, lying on the grass near the Wellington Monument in the Phoenix Park with her four children, her sister and her nephew.
Camilla and her sister Sarah grew up close to parks and spent hours in Bushy and Marlay Parks in south Dublin all summer long as children. Now Camilla's children, Owen (7), Anna (6), Dylan (nearly 4) and Isabella (2) have faces smeared with ice-cream and grass stains on their clothes from all the rolling around they are doing. Sarah has gamely been teaching her son Tom (6) how to do cartwheels. "I didn't know I still could," she says, laughing.
As well as acrobatics, Sarah likes posh picnics. "I'll bring the works, deckchairs, lovely stuff from the deli, and make the picnic last all day," she says.
Camilla is organising Dylan's fourth birthday this coming weekend in the playground at Ashtown Castle, a medieval tower house beside the Phoenix Park visitor's centre.
"It's a brilliant place, there are huge trees almost like houses to climb, the children love all the activities in the playground and the adults get to sit and relax," she says. "We'll provide a picnic for the guests but won't have to clean the house either before or afterwards, which is a bonus."
Phoenix Park, the largest urban enclosed park in Europe, is often described as Dublin's playground. It's twice the size of Manhattan's Central Park and offers everything from ornamental gardens, nature trails, cows, massive monuments, horses, deer roaming in the central 15 acres and, of course, the wonders of the zoo. You can rent a bike at the gates of the park, or get your rollerblades on or join the joggers on the endless trails. There are also polo, cricket and football fields if you are feeling particularly energetic.
Or you can sit in the quaint tea rooms doing nothing at all. "It's an amenity you can use summer or winter," says Camilla. "It feels very safe, the kids have a great time and it gets them away from the TV. That's a huge part of the appeal."
The sisters say they sometimes see groups drinking in the park but "they don't bother us and we don't bother them". The teenagers that congregate around the Wellington Monument aren't an issue either.
"We did it when we were their age, they have to go somewhere," says Sarah.
The children can't say enough about the park. Ann loves playing chasing. Tom likes running up the steps of the 200-foot high obelisk. Dylan likes negotiating the maze at Ashtown Castle. And Isabella? She likes the ice-cream. The bits she gets in her mouth, anyway.
Phoenix Park really comes alive at the weekend, especially when the sun comes out. Families stretch out on bedspreads with homemade egg sambos, crisps and flasks of tea or, in the case of one family from Afghanistan spotted in the park recently, lavish barbecues featuring
lamb and vegetarian kebabs. Offered some of their Afghan fare by neighbouring picnickers earlier this summer, one Irish family wondered what to give from their picnic in return.
"We gave them packs of Tayto," said the guilty picknicker. "I think we got the better side of that bargain."
