2012:197 - St George’s Graveyard, National Council for the Blind of Ireland, Whitworth Road, Drumcondra, Dublin

A permission granted by An Bord Pleanála conditioned archaeological monitoring during the reconstruction of a section of the late 18th- or early 19th-century southern boundary wall of St George’s Graveyard, Drumcondra. The graveyard has served the needs of the Church of Ireland parish of St George since at least the early 19th century and the majority of grave markers and funerary memorials date to the early- to mid-20th century. Despite this, there are no registered archaeological monuments within the site footprint.

The parish of St George was established in 1793. The site of the graveyard was initially considered for the church, however it was found to be too far from the population centre of the new parish. Francis Johnston’s church was thus built on the junction of Hardwicke Street and Temple Street in 1814. The graveyard was probably laid out and enclosed before the turn of the century and the plot of land to the south facing the canal was given over for the provision of a new hospital for the parish, the Whitworth Fever Hospital, which opened in 1818. After 1842, it became a general hospital for the area and its name was changed to the Drumcondra Hospital in 1893. The hospital continued as such until 1973, when it became an annex to the Rotunda Hospital. In 1986 the premises were acquired by the National Council for the Blind of Ireland.

Burials in the graveyard began in the 1820s and continued until 1962. Although now surrounded by buildings, something of its primary rural context can be picked up on the first edition of the OS. Here, prior to the arrival of the railway, the graveyard is one of many enclosed fields between the Drumcondra and Phibsborough Roads. The large area across the canal was in the process of being developed as Mountjoy Gaol and was still mostly under pasture. The 25 inch map of c. 1912 shows the graveyard close to the full (sub)urban maturity of the townland of Clonliffe West. By then the graveyard had been hemmed in on the west by the back gardens of the houses on Claude Road. To the east, the gardens along Lower St Columba’s Road shared the calp limestone party wall. The development of Brendan’s Road North, an extension of St Clement’s Road, saw the narrow plot built upon against the shallow curve of the Midland Great Western Railway embankment to the north.

There are several notable burials in the graveyard, including the remains of Johnston (1761–1829). The best-published account of the graveyard is in Igoe (2001, 237-40) and some transcriptions of memorials can be accessed on the Dublin Cemetery Records page at www.igp-web.com. The graveyard sees some limited maintenance, however the present works were necessitated by the collapse of a section of the wall after a period of bad weather. The wall has been repointed on the interior and works are progressing on the southern, exterior face.

The development involved the removal of the failed 16m section of the southern boundary wall and the excavation by hand of a linear trench some 0.2m in depth from which the southern, exterior wall face could be rebuilt. In addition, four small trenches were excavated against the exterior of the wall further east, to accommodate buttressing. A licence was issued to monitor works to the wall, due to their proximity to the burials in the graveyard.

The excavation of all of these trenches was monitored on 12 April 2012. The work was undertaken by Kevin Carrigan and his team from Stonescapes Ltd. There was nothing of archaeological interest located in the trenches, apart from the evidence that the graveyard wall was constructed from a very shallow foundation, considering its height and the depth of burial soils within.

Reference

Igoe, V. 2001. Dublin Burial Grounds and Graveyards, Dublin.

Archaeology and Built Heritage, 79 Queen Street, Smithfield, Dublin 7