The Garden of Remembrance was created in Dublin, in 1966, and is so named to honour the people who sacrificed and fought for the independence of the Irish Nation, and who ultimately won their struggle. A contest was created in 1976 to find a poet who could express the appreciation and inspiration of this struggle for freedom. The winner of the contest was Dublin born author Liam Mac Uistin, whose poem "We Saw a Vision" is now written in Irish, French, and English on the stone wall of the monument.

The word "aisling" in the Irish language means vision. An aisling poem is a type of poetic form created in the 18th century as a new means of poetry, which could express the hopes and sorrows of the people, free from censorship.

Mac Uistin's poem decisively observes the overcoming of obstacles and the creation of a new freedom by standing up to oppression with a vision of peace. The language successfully moves from the past to the present with a message of hope, in a poetic voice that could easily be speaking about contemporary issues.

Aisling - We Saw A Vision, is a new Bravo!FACT 4-minute dance film, created by Suddenly Dance Theatre¹s David Ferguson and Miles Lowry. The work is choreographed and performed by David Ferguson and Jung-ah Chung, who starred in the recent success OPIUM. Mac Uistin's poem is interpreted as a contemporary aisling ­ a song to speak to all people who value freedom, nature, and the power of transformation. Here too, we are interested in how mythology remains in the modern mind; a kind of ancestral symbolism akin to contemporary dance.

The song Aisling is written and performed in Irish by Miles Lowry.
String arrangement by Joanna Hood. Performed by Eclipse Quartet.

In the darkness of despair we saw a vision.
We lit the lamp of hope. And it was not extinguished.
In the desert of discouragement we saw a vision.
We planted the tree of valour and it blossomed.

In the winter of bondage we saw a vision.
We melted the snow of lethargy.
And the river of resurrection flowed from it.

We sent our vision aswim like a swan on the river.
The vision became reality. Winter became summer.
Bondage became freedom.
And this we left to you as your heritage.

O generations of freedom remember us, the generations of the vision...

-Liam Mac Uistin
translated from the Irish by Liam Mac Uistin