A word of advice to anyone going to visit the garden Bullets and Boiled Sweets at Bloom this year. If you manage to grab him, you should speak to the designer himself about the garden, for although the garden can be enjoyed as a standalone, its means so much more when you speak to Fiann, a most enthusiastic narrator of the garden's story.

The garden came about through a competition run in the Irish Independent in association with Bord Bia, where readers were given the chance to help design the 1916 commemoration garden for Bloom 2016.

The winning story came from Jacinta O'Sullivan who told the story of Ryan's sweetshop in Dublin going on fire in the middle of fighting on Easter Monday.

As the boiled sweets in the shop were flammable, they were thrown into the street to prevent the fire from spreading. As this happened, the children of the tenements ran onto the street, braving the gunshots and the barricades, for a taste of the sweets they could never afford.

The whole experience, when you're looking at it is that fizzy excitement; it speaks of the anticipation of the kids on the day, that they're going to get their hands on some sweets

Fiann Ó'Nualláin, who designed last year's gold medal award-winning garden for Irish Country Magazine, brought the concept to life.

He did this through including as much detail from the period as possible. For example, the cobbles in the garden, across which the bullets and boiled sweets are strewn, are from North King Street and around Richmond’s barracks in Dublin.

"The echo of the children are there on those streets, they would have played across them," says Fiann.

There are old Jameson barrels to the rear of the garden, and original bullet casings are strewn across the cobbles.

Then there are the sweets themselves. "We tried to get as close to the original Irish boiled sweets as possible," Fiann says. "So you have the gobstoppers, the bullseyes and the lemon sherberts, the colours of which are then picked up in the plants around the garden."

The garden is there to be a chunk of living history

Fiann wants the garden to convey the "fizzy excitement" of the experience of the children on that day.

"The whole experience, when you're looking at it is that fizzy excitement; it's almost a sugar rush and that speaks of the anticipation of the kids on the day, that they're going to get their hands on some sweets."

I say the garden is also a place of remembrance, and Fiann agrees.

"Yes, you have to be respectful and true to the mood of the day. Okay it's a piece of theatre, but it's not there to be showy or dramatic for any unnecessary reason, it's there to be a chunk of living history."

Cherish all the children equally

Finally, the large poster of the Proclamation of Independence facing the viewer of the garden as they walk towards it acts as a reminder that the men and women who fought in 1916 asked not alone for a break in ties from Great Britain, but that they also pledged that independent Ireland would "cherish all the children equally".

Fiann's garden, with its echoes of the children who braved bullets to collect sweets they couldn't afford, asks the garden's admirer if this promise has been fulfilled.

Listen the full interview with Fiann below

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