Diamond Park Dublin 1 Archaeological Assessment GARAHY 11/02/2019 archaeology plan H E R I T A G E S O L U T I O N S SITE NAME Diamond Park, Gardiner Street Lower and Seán MacDermott Street Lower, Dublin 1. CLIENT Dermot Foley, Argus House, Blackpitts, Dublin D08 DD56 PLANNING Pre­planning LICENCE N/a REPORT AUTHORS Níall Garahy MA MIAI Antoine Giacometti BSc MA MIAI DATE 11th February 2019 ABBREVIATIONS USED DoCH&G Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht NMI National Museum of Ireland NMS National Monuments Service OS Ordnance Survey RMP Record of Monuments and Places NIAH National Inventory of Architectural Heritage LAP Local Area Plan ARCHAEOLOGICAL PLANNING CONSULTANCY ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSESSMENTS CULTURAL HERITAGE STATEMENTS archaeology plan 32 fitzwilliam place dublin 2 tel 01 6761373 mob 087 2497733 [email protected] www.archaeologyplan.com Table of Contents 1 Introduction 1 Report summary Site location Project proposals 2 Archaeological Background 3 Record of Monuments and Places Previous excavations Topographical files 3 History and Cartography 8 5 Site Inspection 15 6 Archaeological Assessment 17 Archaeological potential Bibliography 18 Section 1 Introduction Report summary south and west of the park. The basements themselves and the Georgian foundations likely The purpose of this desktop assessment is to survive in situ, beneath the present park, as does inform the project design for the refurbishment the leftover everyday items of the people who of Diamond Park of the archaeological poten- lived and died in those buildings over the course tial of the park itself and the immediate of almost two centuries. These artefacts are a environment. The site was undeveloped until precious source of infomation on what was one the late 18th century by the Gardiner estate. The of the largest red light districts in Europe, but large red-brick terraced Georgian houses de- which has recieved very little historical or ar- clined into the slums and tenements of the chaeolgoical attention. Monto red-light district in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By the late 20th century the neg- It is recommended in this report that all lected buildings were demolished to make way groundworks in advance of the refurbishment for Diamond Park. of the park be monitored by a suitably qualified archaeologist and that all subsurface structural The development of the Georgian buildings remains be archaeologically recorded and and basements would likely have removed any planned, with the purpose of preserving by re- earlier archaeological deposits, at least in the cord this corner of the north inner city. 1 Site location Site location Diamond Park is a 0.4ha park that is located on the north-eastern corner of the junction of Gardiner Street Lower and Seán MacDermott Street Lower, Dublin 1. The park borders Kavanagh Court Student Accommodation to the north and the Rutland National School to the east (ITM 716121, 735121). Project proposals Diamond Park has been identified as a priority refurbishment project to improve the quality and experience of the public realm for the local community in the North Inner City. This report is intended to inform the design of that project. 2 Section 2 Archaeological Background Record of Monuments & Places frequent discoveries of bones, swords and spears when foundations were being dug on Six Recorded Monuments, including historic North Great George’s Street, Summerhill, Dublin itself, are listed in the Record of Monu- Gardiner’s Row and Mountjoy Square as evid- ments and Places (RMP) close to Diamond ence that the Battle of Clontarf was fought Park. The RMP files held by the National somewhere between present-day Capel Street Monuments Service were consulted for further and the Tolka River (Traynor 1897). He in- information on these monuments cluded with his letter an essay from The Dublin Magazine of June 1763 by the Rev. Dr. Edward DU018-020 Historic Dublin Ledwich who witnessed “vast quantities of hu- Diamond Park is just outside of the historic man bones” being discovered in the Dublin RMP. The southern limit of the park New-Gardens (present-day Parnell Square) and borders the historic city. The boundary of the on Cavendish Row and Granby Row. A large historic city in this part of Dublin ostensibly sword, a 2-foot spear and numerous iron rivets follows the limits of 18th century development were also discovered at the latter. The sheer as depicted on Charles Brooking’s map of 1728 amount of human remains lead Ledwich to (Giacometti 2011). conclude that they could only have come from the Battle of Clontarf and not some later battle DU018-020495 Burial ground associated with the coming of the English, who A possible cemetery site of Viking origin, the fought with much fewer numbers (Ledwich extent of which is unknown. In a letter to The 1763). Irish Builder in 1897, Patrick Traynor cited the Locations of nearby RMPs. Note the boundary of Historic Dublin (DU018­020) is not marked on this map 3 Charles Brooking’s 1728 A map of the city and suburbs of Dublin. Note that Brooking’s map is aligned so that north points downwards DU018-020496 Church 1675 on land beside ‘the water mill lately built St. George’s Church is situated beside Temple by Mr. Gilbert Mabbott’ (de Courcy 1996, 7). Street Children’s Hospital in Harwicke Place. Gilbert Mabbott appears later in the Assembly Considered one of Dublin’s most beautiful Records of 1669 and his tidal mill was situated buildings, it was built for the wealthy Protestant on his land which extended from the seashore community of the north inner city between at modern Talbot Street back to Montgomery 1802 and 1813. The architect was Francis John- Street (Dillon Cosgrave 1909, 88). An unnamed ston who also designed the GPO on O’Connell feature marked on de Gomme’s map of 1673 Street (Dublin buildings website). near the modern City Morgue on Store Street is later named (on Bolton’s map of 1717) as the DU018-020504 Graveyard ‘corner of Mabbot’s Wall’ (de Courcy 1996, The extent of the graveyard associated with St. 240). The mill may have gone out of use, and George’s church (DU018-020496) is unknown. the millpond infilled, by the mid-18th century The church predates the formation of Hill (de Courcy 1996, 240) and no surface trace now Street; therefore, its western boundary was not exists (Stout 1997, RMP Field Notes). originally confined by the line of the street. It is possible that the cemetery may have been trun- DU018-425 Parnell statue (Nat. Monument) cated by the later laying out of Hill Street. The The following account of this monument is de- core of the cemetery is no longer in situ, the rived from the report on the ‘History of area having been cleared to build the Hill Street monuments. O’Connell Street area’ commis- playground (Giacometti 2005). sioned by Dublin City Council in 2003 (SMR file): DU018-020501 Tidal Mill The site is located c.240m to the north-west of ‘Sackville Street was also to be the location for a tidal mill pond and associated mill site at Tal- one of the last sculptural initiatives in the city bot Street. The earliest reference to the mill is before independence when, in 1899, the found- noted in a lease granted to Jonathen Amory in ation stone was laid for a monument dedicated 4 The Parnell Monument, located on O'Connell street, commemorates Charles Stewart Parnell (1846­1891) Irish nationalist politician and leader of the Land League (DCC Historical Postcards Archive HP29) to Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891)…where monument is constructed in undecorated ashlar it now stands in answer to the O’Connell statue granite. at the south end and terminates the parade of nationalist statues on the primary thoroughfare The names of the thirty-two counties and of the capital. provinces on bronze plaques around the base were part of an earlier scheme for the four- Augustus Saint-Gaudens, an Irish-born sculptor sided pyramid, representing the four provinces and the most eminent in the art of public and were retained for the revised triangular monuments in the United States, accepted the shaft. There is a stark contrast between the commission… (and he) planned a monument presentation of Parnell and O’Connell, the which would integrate sculpture and architec- former does not symbolically rise above political ture. structures, but tries to find a new form of ex- pression, accessible to the people in the location He finally presented Parnell in what he con- of the figure. sidered a noble and calm manner, depicted in an open frock coat, with one hand resting on a (John) Redmond chose a passage from one of table and the other extended dramatically as if the more extreme Parnell speeches for the in- making a point at a parliamentary debate. In an scription, ‘. no man has the right to say to his incongruous gesture to the neo-classical pro- country, “thus far shalt thou go and no further” gramme of decoration on the nearby Rotunda, and we have never attempted to fix the ne plus the base of the monument is decorated in swags ultra to the progress of Ireland’s nationhood, and bucrania, resulting in an odd proximity of and we never shall’ (SMR file, compiled by Paul ox-sculls to Parnell’s feet. The shaft of the Walsh). 5 Previous excavations low (Myles 2005, excavations.ie). Numerous archaeological investigations have 18 Langrishe Place taken place in the area around Diamond Park. Archaeological testing in advance of a develop- Given the high number of these, the table be- ment discovered that the earliest phase of low summarises only the results of those activity found dated to the earlier two-thirds of investigations that have taken place within two the 18th century and was represented by an or- blocks of the park.