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.