OnTheTown: There was time to smell the lavender and the rock cloves at Farmleigh estate in Phoenix Park this week, when a four-month season of free cultural events was launched.
The sunken Dutch Garden, which was added in 1920, was the setting for a party where Tom Parlon TD, Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (OPW), announced "this lively and exciting range of activities for all the family to enjoy". All of the events, including those that are ticketed, such as the RTÉ Proms, are free and open to the public.
"The programme kicks off in July with a magical set of musical performances to suit a wide audience," Parlon said, noting the presence of one of the new collaborators who are working with the OPW on programming the events - Gerry Godley, of the Improvised Music Company.
"Jazz is the shark that can't stop swimming lest it asphyxiates," said Godley, who has scheduled a series of contemporary piano concerts; and on Sunday, July 31st, "we are going to recreate a seminal moment in jazz, which was at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1956".
Poet Tony Curtis will be reading at Farmleigh in September. "We'll all live in places like Farmleigh come the revolution," he joked as he surveyed the grounds of the estate, which was formerly owned by the Guinness family. "It's a beautiful spot."
There will be a series of talks on gardening, programmed by Dermot O'Neill, who chatted to fellow gardener John Cushnie and his wife, Wilma Cushnie. Rose O'Keeffe and Anne Doyle, from the Tallaght Home Help Service, will bring young and old to events in Farmleigh.
Adrien Kelly, of the Glebe Gallery, outside Letterkenny, Co Donegal, is curating the art exhibition, which will be on view at the estate's new gallery. Making Time will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Einstein's discovery of the theory of relativity, he said.
Mary Heffernan, general manager of Farmleigh, expects up to 125,000 people to visit the 78-acre estate over the four-month season. "We get a very broad range, from children to older people," she said. This year, she added, the new exhibition space "means people will get an extra cultural experience".