Wolfe Tone Park, facing the Jervis Centre, holds macabre and fascinating secrets. It's home to "The Church" pub and the bulging bronze cow statue "Ag Crú na Gréine". Also, amid the occasional conclave of addicts the paved public space has some buried treasures. Lined up on the southern side and embedded in the pavement are dozens of gravestones. The park was originally a cemetery!
The land was deconsecrated in 1966, but the thousands of bodies beneath were not exhumed. Some famous "residents" buried here are patriot and rebel Archibald Hamilton Rowan of the United Irishmen, Mary Mercer who founded Mercer’s Hospital and the notorious Lord Norbury (1745–1831) aka "The Hanging Judge".
Nearby Jervis Street shopping centre is on the site of the former Jervis Street hospital. The Charitable Infirmary in Cook Street was founded by six Dublin surgeons in 1718 and moved to the former mansion of the Earl of Charlemont at 14 Jervis Street 1796. Jervis Street Hospital was eventually absorbed by Beaumont Hospital. Only the external facades were preserved when it became a shopping centre. For believers in the supernatural, there are numerous tales of alleged paranormal activity in the modern-day shopping centre related to its past incarnation.
The aforementioned park's illustrious namesake, Theobald Wolfe Tone (1763–1798) was baptised in the adjoining St. Marys church, as was playwright Sean O’Casey. Arthur Guinness (1725-1803) married Olivia Whitmore there in 1761.
Saint Mary’s Church of Ireland was built around 1704 but closed in 1986 due to a lack of C.of I. parishioners in the city centre. It was bought by publican John Keating in 1997 and received a generous and faithful restoration whilst being converted to a pub and restaurant.
Back to the subject of graves, Wolfe Tone Park isn't the only resting place. Although the subterranean Cellar Bar in the Church is not actually the old crypt, there were six genuine, well stocked burial crypts in its basement. 32 skeletons were exhumed and reinterred elsewhere during deconsecration.
@AnthonyICHH Sunday after at Wolfe Tone Square, just off Mary St. Dublin 1. Polish drunkards throwing & smashing vodka bottles..!! Five policemen & two vehicles to arrest one person as so drunk ..!!
@dubcivictrust@Archidub1 I can't help wondering what it cost to create the current denuded piece of urban vandalism. I worked nearby in the late 90s and the park was a beautiful spot for lunch on a sunny day
@dubcivictrust@Archidub1 It is tragic that the park continues to be vandalised by @DubCityCouncil. Visit the park soon, before the last of the artifacts are removed. There are more photos available on https://t.co/Ozk4xbkg9i.
Rarely seen early photographs of Wolfe Tone Memorial Park, the former St. Mary's Churchyard, after its planting up as a public park in the 1960s. Note the survival of the Victorian perimeter railings. From @Archidub1