Huguenot graveyard?

Work being carried out by the council as far as I know, to restore part of the graveyard in the public view. Think adjoining business had applied for a staircase to be built over part of it but worked out something with the council.

I may, of course, be completely wrong.

Cheers Bosco!

After the application to build over it previously, I feared the worst.

Bosco is right. Glass staircase being inserted on one side of the graveyard to service the former Table8 restaurant. The rest of the graveyard is being refurbished with some sort of tourist/interpretive element. Very welcome, but seems to be taking ages,

Is the site big enough for all that? It looks tiny!!

Walked by this over the weekend, they’ve knocked out a section of wall and installed a nice wrought-iron-esque gate (the view inside is still blocked off). Looks like this might turn out well!

Walked by again yesterday, and it looks well. The stone wall is in better nick that I expected and they’ve installed lights in the path to highlight the detail, the new gate is nice too. It’s actually even smaller inside than I imagined – this must be the smallest ‘development’ ever to merit its own thread on archiseek! 🙂

Yes, they seemed to have done a nice job on it.
Glad to see they’ve kept the original wall – there was talk of replacing it. Inside looks good, although I was under the impression there were more complete gravestones than that – perhaps they have yet to be returned?

All in all, it looks good. Hopefully the glass element to the neighbouring property will not be overly intrusive.

From Cork, Past and Present:
In 1733 the Huguenots in Cork acquired property near their existing church on French Church Street and began to use the newly-acquired property as a graveyard. The graveyard, which lies between French Church Street and Carey’s Lane is still in existence. Proposals to build a residential and commercial development over the graveyard were refused permission in 1990 and again in 2001. The proposals provoked protests from many people in Cork city and from Huguenots and academics in the USA and the UK. In 2003 the Irish Huguenot Society proposed that the graveyard should be restored and used as a green area for visitors to the centre of Cork city. So far this proposal has not been implemented.

The tombstones visible in the photograph are set horizontally into the ground. This calls to mind some lines from a poem entitled ‘Quakers’ by the late Sean Dunne

Outside, their acre of graves
Shows names and dates like the flat
Covers of shut files.
(from Against the storm. Mountrath: Dolmen Press, 1985)

Walked by Carey’s Lane this morning and saw the newly restored graveyard for the first time. Thanks to all concerned for a job well done.