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A PROPOSAL TO build a playground in a park dedicated to the memories of the Irish volunteers who died in the 1798 Rebellion has been branded “immoral” by protesters.
A petition calling for the safeguarding of the Croppies’ Acre Memorial Park on Wolfe Tone Quay, which is also thought to be a mass gravesite for the 1798 rebels, has garnered some 1,600 signatures so far.
Fine Gael Councillor Ray McAdam put forward the proposal to Dublin City Council’s parks department in an effort, he says, to tackle anti-social behaviour and to utilise the green space for locals.
The memorial park closed to the public in 2012 after the Office of Public Works (OPW) – who maintained the park at the time – said that they couldn’t keep it safe for the public due to anti-social behaviour.
Hypodermic needles were regularly found at the park, and in September 2012 the OPW said that it didn’t have the budget to keep the park safe for the public and permanently padlocked the gate. The closure came just one year after about €35,000 had been sunk into restoring the park.
The management of the park was handed over to Dublin City Council by the OPW in 2013 and the council’s Parks and Landscapes Services carried out extensive works to upgrade it and make it more accessible for the public.
When the park reopened in June 2016, the council said that in total the works cost about €120,000.
Councillor McAdam told TheJournal.ie that his overall fear is that the park will close to the public again, as constituents who use the park regularly contact him about the continued level of anti-social behaviour.
“The gardaí are constantly in and trying to deal with the situation but even yesterday when myself, my wife, and the young son were in it, there were people drinking, there were issues in terms of drug use.
“So if you’ve got an area that isn’t being used or where it’s being left idle, that is a recipe, in my view, for anti-social behaviour.
I’m not saying that I have all the answers but the idea of having a playground or play equipment there might produce the opportunity for increased footfall. Where you see increased footfall in an area that is widely used, the level of antisocial behaviour falls as a result.
McAdam says there is merit in examining the feasibility of installing a playground or some play equipment in one small section of Croppies’ Acre. He has suggested the area immediately adjacent to the Civil Defence headquarters.
According to McAdam, council officials believe the Croppies’ Acre could accommodate a junior playground.
“Over the coming weeks, I will look to work with the Parks Department to identify the cost and seek to prepare a feasibility plan for a dedicated play area and purpose-built playground that could potentially serve young families living in the Stoneybatter, Arbour Hill, Montpelier and Infirmary Road areas,” McAdam said in a statement on his website.
The inner-city councillor said the park has been a lifeline for him and locals during the pandemic as green spaces and areas with play equipment for young children are limited in Dublin 7, in particular.
Before reopening in 2016, the council put in a new circulatory path system, upgraded the existing pedestrian gates and installed a new pedestrian gate at the south-west end. Some 100 new trees were also planted.
“The park is big enough and because of the way the trees have been planted you could actually protect the particular memorial area, while also making better use, I think, of the area, nearly half of the remaining park,” said McAdam.
‘Immoral’
Colum Ó Ruairc, who runs the 1798 Rebellion Casualty Date Base, started the petition to oppose McAdam’s plans to show there are people around the country who care about places of historical significance.
He stressed that it is not just a memorial park but a burial site.
“Looking at the public reaction, they are quite annoyed. It’s not just Stoneybatter, or just Dublin 7 that should have a say on this. It should be the whole country and the Irish diaspora with a connection to the rebellion,” Ó Ruairc told TheJournal.ie.
“It’s been 222 years since the rebellion. A lot of people are desensitised from that period, it’s just a park now to them. I can imagine that a lot of people who use that park don’t know what it is. A simple park in the middle of a city can still have its secrets too.
“It was a memorial area that was designed and dedicated in 1998, purposely for the memory of those who died in 1798, regardless of if there are remains below or not. People are feeling threatened that it’s being encroached upon.
I know the park is disrespected daily, by many people going in there drinking cans, urinating, and using drugs but unfortunately, a playground is not going to solve that. A playground is not going to stop anti-social behaviour, it’s proven all across the country.
Ó’Ruairc added that any sort of amenity in a memorial park is “immoral”.
“Would it be done to a mass Famine grave? Or near the Tuam Mother and Baby Home? No, it wouldn’t, there would be public uproar.”
The National Graves Association – a voluntary organisation which lists and maintains the graves of Irish patriots – said the Croppies’ Acre must be protected as it stands as a “proud acknowledgement of the sacrifices made by the heroes of ’98 who died in the cause of Irish freedom”.
It is understood that the brother of Theobald Wolfe Tone, Matthew Tone and the leader of the rebellion Bartholomew Teeling are interred there.
“This site has come under threat previously and the NGA has led campaigns for it to be saved as a fitting memorial. If it is a case that once again we must ‘take the pike from the thatch’ the National Graves Association will not be found wanting,” the group said.
Previous plans for the Liffey Cycle Route involved diverting the route away from the quays and through the Croppies’ Acre park. This came about after a report carried out on behalf of Dublin City Council by Archaeology Plan – a heritage consultancy company – found that the remains may not be buried in the park at all.
The diversion was scrapped after concerns were raised by business owners, apartment dwellers, and historical groups.
The NGA contend that the park is a mass burial site for rebels who fought in the failed 1798 Rebellion – commonly referred as Croppies due to their close-cut hair which mimicked the style of the French revolutionaries at the time.
NGA spokesperson Matt Doyle said that while the group has sympathy for those living in the inner city who lack green spaces and amenities for kids, “the Phoenix Park is a stone’s throw from the Croppies’ Acre”.
“What’s there is respectful and honours our patriot dead. We believe it should be left, and if needs be, it should be monitored more.”
Dublin City Council did not respond to comment.
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Fathered a child = heinous crime. Fiddled a child = let’s say no more about it. Catholic Church 2017
Don’t think Irish Catholics were “profoundly upset” by Bishop Casey being a dad at all…..
@John003: it was more the embezzling of the money that irritated me.
@john Appleseed: well said
@john Appleseed: I think it was the beginning of the end for the Catholic Church as we knew it in Ireland. If a bishop like Casey could do that then we were able to believe all the other revelations that followed. The Catholic Church might see what he did as harmful but I think he unwittingly did a lot of good.
@john Appleseed:
Nail on the Head John…absolutely disgusting
I think that’s what irritated them the most too
It beggars belief doesn’t it? “Bishop has a child with a consenting adult and steals money” is profoundly disturbing to the the head honchos of Catholic Ireland, but sexually and physically abusing children and leaving them with indelible psychological scarring gets brushed under the carpet. I believe in God but the Catholic Church has proven itself to be a dark, twisted and corrupt organisation with no regard for anyone outside its chosen members. Just like our government. The Lord between us and all harm.
One priest/bishop father’s a child and gets posted to a hell hole in the third world. Another priest molests numerous children and gets moved to another comfortable parish. Priorities are clear.
@Paul Mac Court: Don’t you mean that they are spirited away to another comfortable parish. Ir is all divine intervention or smoke and mirrors with them bouyo’s
@Paul Mac Court: Eamonn Casey wasn’t ‘posted to a hell hole in the third world.’ He chose to go and serve as a missionary priest in a remote area of Peru. He could have chosen to work in the USA or some other economically developed country, and in fact served in an English parish after finishing his stint in Peru.
Keeping his head down more like in a far away place
Once again putting the institution (church) before the welfare of his son and his mother. Somethings never change even after all the revelations.
@Jimmy McCarthy: they attempt to balance every wrong done by clerics with a eulogy on all the good deeds done.
But if you dont follow their rules there’s no balance sheet.
You’re bound for hell.
@Jimmy McCarthy: Thousands of Irishmen are guilty of same crime as Bishop Casey. They put their own welfare and position above that of their children by not living up to their responsibilities. They stood idly by and let women
and children suffer in bell holes like Magdalene Laundries and so called Mother and Baby Homes.
@Philip Howlin: Yep all those immaculate conceptions. Where were the fathers. Some of them moved to another parish. No love for fallen women.
On this day 2013 http://www.dailyedge.ie/good-news-you-can-now-change-your-mind-about-thejournal-ie-comments-911407-May2013/
Yesterday http://www.dailyedge.ie/journal-comments-section-changes-3-3288669-Mar2017/
RIP comments section
Any sign of Annie and/or Len’s son?
@Markonline: crying emoji face
Had to get the dig in… Of course when O’Connell kicked it they basically rewrote history for his eulogy…
The church needs to learn that moder society doesn’t give a toss about the “sins”. It’s their crimes that we have a problem with.
Why do RTE keep calling him ‘Bishop’ when he hasn’t been Bishop for 25 years??
@EvieXVI: once a bishop, always a bishop unless defrocked.
@Kieran O’dwyer: he was kind of defrosted though…
@EvieXVI: *defrocked* even!
@EvieXVI: once a bishop always…..,
No, defrosted is what he was. Got warm and loved a woman.
Cases actions – or lack of them in some cases, were pretty upsetting for his son while growing up. The church in their PR spinning, is always all too willing to gloss over that fact conveniently.
He’s human.
@Michael McGuinness: So was Stalin, Hitler and Churchill?
Bishop Casey was not a bad man but a good one there are priests and nuns out there who raped young boys and girls who were in their care shame on them some of those victims never got justice()
Michael Cleary was worse. He denied ,on his death bed, that he fathered a child.
@Each Way Thief: Father Jack has video evidence.
Where does the torture and rape if small children fit in with those who “preach the gospel?” You just have to hand it the Catholic Church, the bs is never ending.
@Laura Mulcahy: Is that the one with the big white dog that is always flying lol.
Removed from office for having a normal human relationship. That’s what the RC church is most afraid of. Women. Girls, you’re the biggest threat there is to the dead stale corpses who call themselves priests and christians
Suffering?? Caused by the Birth of his Son!! Has nothing Changed? What an Awful thing to say at His Funeral! Appalling! RIP Eamon! God Bless His Son!
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