The Croppies' Acre (), officially the Croppies Acre Memorial Park, is a

public park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a city park, municipal park (North America), public park, public open space, or municipal gardens (United Kingdom, UK), is a park or botanical garden in cities, densely populated suburbia and oth ...

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. It contains a memorial to the dead of the 1798 Rebellion.

History

The site, located on the north bank of the

River Liffey The River Liffey (Irish language, Irish: ''An Life'', historically ''An Ruirthe(a)ch'') is a river in eastern Ireland that ultimately flows through the centre of Dublin to its mouth within Dublin Bay. Its major Tributary, tributaries include t ...

to the south of Collins Barracks (formerly the Royal Barracks) is traditionally believed to have been used as a

mass grave A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of exec ...

for Irish rebel casualties of the 1798 Rebellion; they were known as Croppies due to their short-cropped hair. It was also called Croppies' Hole at the time. Some rebels' bodies were also exhibited at the Croppies' Hole, tied to pikes. The National Graves Association maintains that it was also used after 1798 to bury veterans of the conflict, including Matthew Tone, brother of

Wolfe Tone Theobald Wolfe Tone, posthumously known as Wolfe Tone (; 20 June 176319 November 1798), was a revolutionary exponent of Irish independence and is an iconic figure in Irish republicanism. Convinced that, so long as his fellow Protestantism in ...

. Bartholomew Teeling was also supposedly buried at Croppies' Acre after being hanged at Provost Prison, Arbour Hill. However, archaeological investigations have failed to find any human remains and its status as a grave is uncertain. The precise site of the burials was long disputed, all being known was that the dead had been buried on marshy ground near the Royal Barracks. Other reports mentioned that the corpses of the executed were thrown into the Liffey as a public deterrent; the river being tidal at this point. In addition, the

was realigned in this area to extend the city's quays. The supposed "Croppies' Acre" was for a long time a soldiers' playing field. The Memorial Park was designed and laid out in 1998. It was closed in 2012 by the

Office of Public Works The Office of Public Works (OPW) (; legally the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland) is a major Government of Ireland, Irish Government agency, which manages most of the Irish State's property portfolio, including hundreds of owned and ren ...

due to anti-social behaviour, including drunkenness and the use of hard drugs. Ownership was transferred to

Dublin City Council Dublin City Council () is the Local government in the Republic of Ireland, local authority of the city of Dublin in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. As a city council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. Until 2001, the authority was k ...

and the Croppies' Acre was reopened in 2016.

References

{{Dublin Parks Parks in Dublin (city) Cemeteries in Dublin (city) Irish Rebellion of 1798 Mass graves in the Republic of Ireland Memorials to the Irish Rebellion of 1798

History

See also

References