As there was much activity when I arrived I decided that it was not appropriate to photograph this cemetery in greater detail, maybe I will visit again next year.
St Otteran is variously described as a son or a companion or a predecessor of St Columba on the island of Iona, where there is a graveyard in his honour, the “Reilg Odhráin”. He is also the principal patron of the diocese of Waterford, having been chosen for that honour by the Vikings. They had buried some of their dead on Iona and were the first occupiers of Waterford city.
St. Otteran’s Burial Ground, also known as Ballinaneeshagh Burial Ground, is operated by Waterford City & County Council. It was in use from the early 19th century but only enclosed and laid out in 1877. There were a number of burials prior to the attempt to provide a plan for the burial ground. There is no register for these earlier burials. The first 426 plots on the burial register were left blank in the hope that the ‘Burial Board’ could fill in the details later but this never occurred.
The first record from the burial register dates to 12th September 1862 and Waterford City and County Archive holds the original burial registers from 1862 until 1966 but there are some gaps. Unfortunately, burials did not always strictly adhere to the plan of burial plots laid out so further investigation may be required when searching for a plot found in the register.
The oldest Anglo-Norman records in Ireland frequently refer to an extra mural district, east of Dublin, denominated “The Stein” or “Steine”, a flat piece of land extending southwards from the strand of the Liffey to “the lands of the Rath”, and eastward from near the city walls to the river Dodder.
If you mention the “Long Stone” most people in Dublin will immediately think of a pub.
The Long Stone on Townsend Street was established in 1754 and has been a favourite of Trinity College, Dublin students for generations. Unfortunately the pub which traded for 264 years ceased trading in December 2018 before being demolished as part of a major city centre development.
The Steine sculpture was erected in 1986 and was sculpted by Cliodhna Cussen. It was removed for a few years because of construction works associated with the new Luas cross-city tram service. The original installation included a granite inscribed plaque and a bronze plaque on a circular shaft set into granite setts arranged in eight circular bands around the principal granite shaft. When I photographed it immediately after the restoration bronze plate was missing but as you can see it is now there but the original setts have not been restored.
The stone is erected on a site near which stood a famous Long Stone or Steine / Steyne standing 12-14 feet high and erected by the Viking inhabitants of Dublin in the 10th or 11th centuries.
The River Liffey was much broader then and the stone actually stood close to the shoreline and perhaps marked a landing place.
The 3.35m high granite shaft is carved with two faces, one of which represents Ivor the first Viking King of Dublin who ruled in the 9th century. The other face is that of a nun and commemorates the convent of St. Mary Hogges, which stood nearby in the middle ages.
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