I HAD the pleasure last Friday of strolling around the newly-restored Fitzgerald’s Park with my mother, on a beautiful May evening.

Fitzgerald Park on Cork’s Mardyke is once again open fully to the public in all its floral and artistic glory, flanked by Diarmuid Gavin’s controversial Sky Garden and the restored Fr Mathew Fountain.

From a flying Sky Garden in Chelsea to a stunning viewing platform over the banks of the Lee — the transformation is finally complete.

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It bloomed after winning gold at the 2011 Chelsea Flower Show but wilted when it became entangled in a thorny mesh of controversy and rancour.

A €4.5m transformation of Marina Park, Cork, will get under way in September which is set to restore the area to its former Victorian splendour.

The historic lord mayor’s pavilion in Cork’s Fitzgerald Park is set to get a new lease of life.

The curse of the Sky Garden has struck again.

The €2.3m regeneration of Cork’s landmark Fitzgerald Park will help attract more British tourists to Ireland.

Cork’s city manager hopes the signing today of a €2.3m contract to revamp a landmark park will finally put an end to the ‘Sky Garden’ controversy which has dogged the scheme for almost two years.

The installation of Diarmuid Gavin’s Sky Garden into a Cork City park is finally due to begin next month.

Cork’s city manager has invited the private sector to pitch for public funding in a bid to secure the development of a large-scale events centre in the city.

Diarmuid Gavin has missed out on designing a garden for this year’s Chelsea Flower Show — but is planning the biggest ever garden at Hampton Court.

Work installing the controversial Sky Garden in Cork is set to begin next February with plans for a gala opening as part of The Gathering.

A Victorian exhibition garden, a sensory garden, and Diarmuid Gavin’s controversial Sky Garden will be installed in Fitzgerald Park in Cork as part of upgrade works starting in October.

It’s time to search for the wellies and don your best festival gear as this — hopefully not too wet — August bank holiday weekend is packed with festival fun.

The new-look Liss Ard Festival was launched yesterday outside Skibbereen in West Cork.

Information Commissioner Emily O’Reilly has called on the Government to speed up election promises made to voters to introduce major reforms and extensions to freedom of information legislation.

Celebrity gardener Diarmuid Gavin was very much down to earth for the launch of a community project to build an inner-city garden for homeless people in Dublin yesterday.

Diarmuid Gavin is defying Chelsea Flower Show chiefs by vowing to take visitors up his 80ft (24m) high pyramid garden in a lift.

Celebrity gardener Diarmuid Gavin has poured further fuel on the fire in the Sky Garden row by claiming that working with Cork City Council and Fáilte Ireland on the project was like “working with Father Ted... like Craggy Island”.

Cork’s city manager has moved to “finally nail” suggestions that celebrity gardener Diarmuid Gavin’s flying pod cost taxpayers €2.3m.

Accumulated losses continued at companies controlled by celebrity gardener Diarmuid Gavin in 2010, new figures show.

His work is unlikely to feature on any Olympics tourist guide to London, yet Australian-born artist Steve Wheen offers an eccentric alternative to the usual city sites, turning every pothole he encounters into a miniature oasis.

MAVERICK garden designer Diarmuid Gavin’s controversial €2.3 million taxpayer-funded ‘flying’ garden is set to be grounded by health and safety concerns.

CORK’S city manager has described the delivery and management of the Sky Garden project as “particularly challenging”.

IT’S the “moo-ving statue” they hope will draw thousands of visitors to Cork city this Christmas and beef up city trade.

CORK city officials are still in talks with celebrity gardener Diarmuid Gavin over how his Sky Garden can be incorporated into a park earmarked for a €1.8 million revamp.

A LOCAL authority has turned down an appeal and again refused to release documents relating to garden designer Diarmuid Gavin’s controversial Sky Garden which could cost taxpayers up to €2.3 million.

A LOCAL authority has refused to release a raft of documents relating to Diarmuid Gavin’s controversial €2.3 million Sky Garden which was funded by taxpayers.

CITY officials in Cork have asked for more time to provide documents relating to Diarmuid Gavin’s controversial Sky Garden, which are being sought under Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation.

TAXPAYERS may have unknowingly coughed up €2.3 million to build a garden in the sky — but now they’re going to have to wait another year to see their project in bloom.

Irish gardener Diarmuid Gavin has won gold at this year's Chelsea Flower Show in London.