2000:0596 - LIMERICK: Nicholas Street/Mary Street, Limerick

This work consisted of a complete refurbishment of both Nicholas Street and Mary Street, in advance of laying a new water main, storm-water sewers and cable ducts. The work extended from the northern end of Nicholas Street, near the Parade (just south of King John’s Castle), to the southern end of Mary Street, near Baal’s Bridge. Additional refurbishment work was carried out along the full length of George’s Quay. In the course of this work, the town wall was identified. As this work is ongoing, it will be dealt with in 2001.

All of the work was carried out on what had been the High Street or Great Street of the Englishtown, but for the most part the pipe-trenches were cut through ground that had already been disturbed by a culvert-type sewer down most of the length at a depth of 3m and also by water mains and old and new gas mains (both with individual supplies to the buildings) at different depths. These service trenches resulted in the complete disturbance of the street stratigraphy. The new water main was placed more or less central to the street at an average depth of 1m below the old street level; the ducts were placed under the new footpaths on both sides of the street.

Disarticulated human bones, two sherds of medieval pottery and one piece of post-medieval pottery were recovered on Nicholas Street at the entrance to the Corporation’s Almshouse. These were scattered under the concrete footpath on ground that had previously been disturbed by service trenches to the Almshouse and by the restoration of its entrance gate and perimeter wall sometime in the 1970s. The base of these walls seems to be set no deeper than the old street-surface level. Presumably the bones are from the graveyard, which would have been associated with St Nicholas’s medieval parish church to the south of the castle. They are depicted on the Hardiman map of 1590 (TCD MS 1209/57). According to Westropp (1905, 354), ‘It was in good repair in 1615’. The church was apparently ‘destroyed’ during the sieges (either 1642 or 1651). Both are mentioned in the Civil Survey of 1654 (Simington 1938, 444): ‘...Church, Churchyard and...is set...by the Comrs of Revenue’, which suggests that they were no longer used for ecclesiastical purposes. A 1658 copy of a taxation of around the early 1400s, made, with annotations, by White, states: ‘The parish church of St Nicholas...Its vicarage belongs to the college of the vicars choral. No traces of this church exist; but it was near the King’s Castle, on the south side’ (Lenihan 1866, 558). Although there were two distinct parishes, St Nicholas’s and St Mary’s, the former was amalgamated to the latter, and the smaller church was presumably deconsecrated and used for secular purposes until it was finally razed. According to Ferrar (1787), the Almshouses were built ‘after the Capitulation of Limerick’ (i.e. the Siege of 1691), probably in the early 1700s. By this stage, the graveyard had not only been out of use for some time, but, presumably, its presence was not remembered.

At the southern end of Mary Street, near the junction with Little Fish Lane, a small vertical face of white mortar and stones, which looks like the core of the town wall, was exposed when making a connection for the sewer pipe extending east down what remains of this lane, the eastern end of which has been truncated by the new Northern Relief Road. In the pre-construction excavations for the road, the town wall was identified by Kenneth Hanley, running east–west just south of the line of the lane (Excavations 1997, 118–20, 96E0334). If extended westwards, the wall would link up with this masonry.

Another stretch of wall was exposed in front of Nos 57–58 Mary Street, south of the junction with Little Fish Lane, near Baal’s Bridge. It was parallel to the houses but 4m west of them and extended north–south for 6m. Its northern end, located close to the masonry mentioned above, appears to have been reduced by the insertion of pipes; it is not known if it occurred below the base of the trench, which was 0.85m. The only faced portion was at the south-eastern end. This ran at an angle, north-east by south-west and was exposed for c. 0.7m. The exposed width was 1.05m. The western face of this wall was exposed for 0.4m (length) at the base of the trench for the water main coming from George’s Quay. The total exposed width of the wall from the western face was at least 3m. Evidence of another substantial wall extending east–west was exposed by Edmond O’Donovan at the eastern end of George’s Quay (Excavations 1999, 169–71, 98E0581), with which this north–south stretch of wall may connect to form part of the guard- or gatehouse located near the bridge.

References
Ferrar, J. 1787 History of Limerick, ecclesiastical, civil and military from the earliest records to the year 1787.
Lenihan, M. 1866 Limerick: its history and antiquities, ecclesiastical, civil and military. Dublin.
Simington, R.C. 1938 Civil Survey 1654–56, County of Limerick. Dublin.
Westropp, T.J. 1905 A survey of the ancient churches in the County of Limerick. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. 25, sec. C.

City Hall, Limerick