MEMORIAL PLAQUE IN LIMERICK AT BROWN’S QUAY – O’DWYER VILLAS
Brown’s Quay was named after a local brewer. It was also the riverside location of Archibald Walker’s Thomondgate Distillery.
“In memory of the deceased relatives of the residents of O’Dwyer Villas”. This plaque is located on a wall at Belfield Court on Brown’s Quay in Limerick.
I cannot determine what this refers to. However, it was really the name “Kevin Kiely” that caught my attention.
Kevin Kiely is an Irish politician and former Mayor of Limerick from 2009–10. He was made a Peace Commissioner in 1983 by the then Fine Gael Minister for Justice, Michael Noonan. He is a member of Fine Gael.
He was first elected to Limerick City Council in 1985. He was re-elected to the council in June 2009. He is a member of the Governing Authority of the University of Limerick. He is Chairman of Limerick City Council Joint Policing and a former Chairman of Limerick City Council Future Planning.[
In November 2009, he called for unemployed European Union nationals to be deported from Ireland. His views led to a debate over racism. This was part of a broader controversy surrounding racist comments from Fine Gael members in Limerick.
In March 2010, he called for a change to the law which bans selling alcohol on Good Friday and Christmas Day, at a time when a rugby match was due to take place in Limerick city. Shortly before leaving office in June 2010, he again was the subject of national news when he called for the re-introduction of capital punishment.
WAR MEMORIAL AT QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY PHOTOGRAPHED MARCH 2022
This memorial commemorates the employees and students of Queen’s University who were killed or missing in World War I (253 named people) and World War II (155 named people).
The war memorial in front of Queen’s University is an example of Ideal sculpture by Sir Thomas Brock (who also designed a nearby statue of Queen Victoria), with a beautiful Art Nouveau angel of heroic scale supporting a dying soldier. The University building itself has a grand Elizabethan frontage, and is the work of prominent Belfast architect Sir Charles Lanyon.
On North King Street where the Dublin Bike docking station is now located there is a memorial plaque in memory of the 1916 North King Street Massacre and unfortunately, unless you know where it is, you are unlikely to notice it should you ever walk by.
The killing of 15 civilians at North King Street was one of the worst acts committed by British forces in Ireland in the 20th century – on a par with the Croke Park shootings just a mile or so to the north of North King Street in 1920 in which 14 spectators at football match were gunned down.
In recent years Dublin City Council’s Parks and Landscape Services have carried out an extensive works programme to upgrade the park and make it public park more accessible for the citizens of Dublin and visitors to the city.
The works included a new circulatory path system, upgrading of the existing pedestrian gates and the provision of a new pedestrian gate at the south west end of the park. Existing memorial structures have been upgraded and general landscape improvement works have been carried out. The total cost of the works, were in the order of €120,000. The good news is that the Croppies Acre 1798 Memorial Park, Wolfe Tone Quay, Dublin 7 is once again open to the public and, much to my surprise, it is open 24 hours seven days a week.
The name ‘Croppy’ was used in Ireland in the 1790s and was a reference to the rebels who closely cropped their hair to mimic the French Revolutionaries of the period who cut their hair in contrast to the aristocracy who wore powdered wigs. Three hundred captured rebels were put to death in the Smithfield area of Dublin and their bodies were suspended from the bridges along the River Liffey. They were then buried in the area now known as Croppy’s Acre in front of Collins Barracks, now a branch of the National Museum of Ireland.
Historically the Croppies Acre was located on land under common pasturage and part of what was termed ‘Oxmantown Green’.
In the 17th century, a portion was later presented to the Viceroy, the Duke of Ormond to build a palace, however this was never built and the site was sold to the City Authorities for a Barracks. Built in 1704, it served as a military base for 250 years, it was formally the Royal Barracks and later Collins Barracks.
The Esplanade where the Croppies Acre is located today was fully constructed by the 1850s, complete with boundary walls and ornate railings. During the Great Famine, the Esplanade was the site of a food kitchen. By the 1900s, the land was levelled to form two football pitches for the military. In 1997, the Decorative Arts Section of the National Museum was opened in Collins Barracks and the Memorial Park was subsequently designed and laid out in 1998.
The name ‘Croppy’ was used in Ireland in the 1790s and was a reference to rebels who closely cropped their hair to mimic the French Revolutionaries of the period who cut their hair in contrast to the aristocracy who wore powdered wigs.
Three hundred captives were put to death in the Smithfield area of Dublin and their bodies were suspended from the bridges along the River Liffey. They were then buried in the area now known as Croppy’s Acre in front of Collins Barracks, now a branch of the National Museum of Ireland.
There are two separate parks which may be related but in general tourist guides appear to be unaware of this fact to the extent that some claim that Anna Livia is located in the park beside the the Museum Luas Tram Stop.
The major park, the one normally associated with the museum tram stop, is officially the Croppies Acre 1798 Memorial Park while the smaller park featuring Anna Livia and a small pond is the Croppies Memorial Park. The distinction is/was important because the larger park has been closed to the public for extended periods.
For many years due to anti-social behaviour, mainly drugs related, the major memorial park was off-limits to the public. There was also problems with homeless people occupying parts of the park.
The good news is that the Croppies Acre 1798 Memorial Park, Wolfe Tone Quay, Dublin 7 is once again open to the public and, much to my surprise it is open 24 hours seven days a week.
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