Wolfe Tone Park, also known as Wolfe Tone Square, is a public space in Dublin. It is bounded by Mary Street to the north, Jervis Street to the east, and Wolfe Tone Street to the west.
The park is the site of a graveyard that was attached to St. Mary’s Church, and is named for Theobald Wolfe Tone (1763–1798), who was baptised in the church. The graveyard was deconsecrated in 1966 and laid out as a green park. From 1998 to 2001, Dublin City Council redeveloped the park as an “urban plaza”. The park was closed for further regeneration works in late 2020, and reopened in mid-2022.
The site, formerly the graveyard of St Mary’s Church, was the burial place of the United Irishman Archibald Hamilton Rowan (1751–1834), Mary Mercer, founder of Mercer’s Hospital (died 1734), the philosopher Francis Hutcheson (1694–1746), Sir Boyle Roche, 1st Baronet (1736–1807), an Irish politician and member of the Irish House of Commons, and Lord Norbury (1745–1831; known colloquially as the hanging judge).
From the 1960s to the 1990s, the site operated as a green space, maintained by Dublin City Council. In 1998, the council held a competition to redesign the park, which was won by Peter Cody of Boyd Cody Architects. The updated layout, in the form of an “urban plaza”, was completed in 2001. After the square’s layout was changed, it was made available by Dublin City Council for events, including the Dublin Fringe Festival.
Following a campaign from local residents to restore Wolfe Tone Park as a non-commercial green space, there was debate in the council as to the future use of the park as of 2015. Ultimately the park was closed between 2020 and 2022, and Dublin City Council redeveloped and restored it to a green space.
I am not sure if I would consider it to be a green space but it is much better than it was and to date anti-social activity has reduced.
I know that I and others have complained about how long it has taken to complete the work on Francis Street but until today I had been unaware that Francis Street has been preserved as a residential area, despite a 1968 traffic study recommending that it be levelled to make way for a route to Drogheda port.
According to the local weather forecast: We’re really at the start of potentially a long cold spell because really this cold weather is set to last all the way through next week. Met Éireann expects sharp frost and icy stretches to set in tonight as temperatures dip to -4C in places.
A Status Yellow freezing fog warning applies for all counties in the Republic of Ireland until midday tomorrow, causing potentially hazardous driving conditions.
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