Croppies Acre Rejuvenation.
Unlocking our past, struggling for our future
A Chara,
We write to alert your readers to the deplorable condition into which a
national monument has been allowed to decline. We refer to the
Croppies' Acre Field (as distinct from the tiny well-kept park to which
the Anna Livia monument was removed), the green field between the quays
and the National Museum (Collins Barracks site).
The Office of Public Works has closed the site because it considers it
unsafe to permit public access due to some night-time activities there.
Recently some of us went to inspect the site and were shocked at the
condition into which it has sunk. Used syringes, discarded needles,
bottles, cans and other rubbish were found at a number of locations but
especially inside the stone structure.
Rubbish bags were filled and
disposed of, with the hazardous waste disposed of in bio hazard
containers that were then handed into the local authorities. A return
visit found almost as much rubbish as had been disposed of previously. A
third visit found even more. This is not acceptable and must change.
Croppies Acre is remembered in Dublin folklore as the site of a mass
grave in which the bodies of dead insurgents were thrown in 1798. Among
those lying in Croppies’ Acre are reputedly the bones of Bartholomew
Teeling and Matthew Tone, both hanged at the Provost Prison on Arbour
Hill after the Battle of Ballinamuck on 8 September 1798.
In
1898, the centenary of the United Irish uprisings, 100,000 marched to
the site and placed a plaque there. As many people will be aware, the
centenary commemoration of the United Irish played a significant part in
the creation of a national pro-independence culture which fed into the
Easter 1916 Rising, less than twenty years later, and which in turn fed
into the War of Independence 1919-'21 and the creation of an Irish
state.
Although a 1798 rising commemoration plaque was laid at
the site by “soldiers of the Eastern Command” of the Irish Army in 1985,
soldiers were sometimes to be seen playing football on the field until
the mid-1990s, while Collins Barracks was still in use by the Irish
Army. This practice ceased after a number of complaints from members of
the public who felt the practice was not respectful to the dead
insurgents. The Irish Army vacated Collins Barracks in 1996 or
thereabouts and the National Museum moved into the buildings in 1997.
In 1997 a proposal to turn the graves of the Patriot Dead into a car
and bus park was all the more stunning as the bi-centenary of the United
Irishmen’s Rising of 1798 was imminent and groups everywhere were
renovating monuments and graves, organising seminars and lectures and
planning pike marches.
The then secretary of the National
Graves Association, Tess Kearney, was in poor health, but decided that
such an occasion required action regardless of her personal
circumstances. Tess turned in a magnificent effort for the television
cameras and organised a campaign to “Save the Croppies Acre”. Within
days, various interested parties came together and, under the leadership
of the NGA. The plan to build a coach park on the site was defeated and
the Croppie's Acre site was developed two years ago as a national
monument with an expenditure of some €35,000. The field layout is simple
with flagstones throughout the site presumably symbolising the bodies
lying below and a small open circular stone structure on which are
reproduced parts of the text and facsimile typeface of the Droites del
Homme (Rights of Man) document from the French Revolution (1789). Also
featured is the text of Seamus Heaney's poem “Croppies” and the motif of
the barley seed head is reproduced on the stone in reference to the
poem and Irish folk memory.
It may be that some will say that
the expense, even though relatively small, of looking after a national
monument, cannot be justified in the current climate of austerity. To
those we would say that possibly, had we valued sufficiently our
independence and the sacrifices made for it in the past, we would not
have allowed foreign finance speculators to bring us to sad straits in
which we find ourselves now. The image of our past locked away while we
are plundered as a nation in the present is a stark contrast.
However about that, the Office of Public Works must take the appropriate
action to look after this site properly and offer safe access to the
park during the hours of daylight seven days a week. At night, the site
needs to be well-lit and protected. Mr. Brian Hayes, TD, Minister of
State responsible for the OPW since 2011, must take urgent action.
Is muidne
Diarmuid Breatnach, Irish Historian & Tour Guide.
Pádraig Drummond. Local Historian.
Dr. Ruan O’Donnell, Professor of Irish History, University of Limerick.
Conor Kostick, Author & Historian, Trinity Collage Dublin.
Matt Doyle, Sec. National Graves Association.
Tom Stokes, Citizens’ Initiative for Republic Day.
John O'Connor, Irish Historian.
Gary Heary, Author, Historian & Tour Guide.
Donal Fallon, Author, Irish Historian & Tour Guide.
Ciaran Murphy, Author & Irish Historian.
Lorcan Collins, Irish Historian Tour Guide & Author.
Roibeárd McElroy, Irish Historian, Tour Guide & Poet.
Kevin Keane, Irish Historian.
Luke Fallon, Illustrator.
Barry McGinley, Local Historian.
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