Graveyard in Limerick City

Graveyard belonging to St. Nicholas' Church (LI005-017114-) in Limerick City described in the Urban Survey of Limerick (Bradley et. al. 1989, 300) as following; 'First mentioned in the inquisition of 1200-1 (MacCaffrey 1907, 27, 28) it is listed as the dean’s parish in Bishop Donatus O’Brien’s ordinance of 1204-6 (ibid., 116). It was included among the Limerick churches to which Geoffrey Galwey bequeathed a legacy in 1445 (Westropp 1898, 122-3). It was located near the Castle Barrack and is shown on the Hardiman map of c.1590 as having a side aisle to the north of the main building, a central tower with low pointed spire and a planted cemetery. It was destroyed in 1651 (Westropp 1904-5, 358-9)'. Archaeological excavations carried out by Kenneth Wiggins under licence No. 98E0047 revealed skeletal material which may have come from the graveyard belonging to St. Nicholas' Church. The results of this excavation were summarised as following; 'This site lies along the southern side of the Castle Lane development next to King John's Castle. The alms houses were built in the 19th century in the former grounds of St Nicholas's parish church, which was demolished in the second half of the 17th century. The Castle Lane architectural consultants, Murray Ó Laoire Associates, suggested that a combined gas/ESB service trench be dug on the site as part of the groundwork in connection with the construction of Castle Lane. Approval to dig the trench was granted by Limerick Corporation, owners of the alms-house terrace. Work began without archaeological consultation in the garden nearest Nicholas Street on 9 January 1998 but was quickly suspended when some human bone remains were uncovered, denoting the presence of burials relating to the graveyard of the church. Following this discovery arrangements were made to have the digging of the trench archaeologically monitored. However, owing to objections from the residents and other problems, the contractor opted to lay the services along the southern side of the Castle Lane site itself. Therefore the limited area already disturbed at the eastern end of the garden was backfilled and no further work on the site took place' (www.excavations.ie). In 2000 and 2001 archaeological investigations carried out in this area by Celie O'Rahilly of Limerick Corporation and the results were summarised as following; '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 (1904-5, 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' (www.excavations.ie). In 2013 excavations carried out by Aegis Archaeology were summarised as following; 'Monitoring of development works for a parking space near the Widow’s Alms Houses led to the identification of a minimum of seven in situ burials, as well as a quantity of disarticulated human remains. The burials lay directly below the top sod and a thin layer of topsoil. The burials were unexcavated, but were examined by osteo-archaeologist Linda Lynch, on whose report this summary is based. Analysis of the disarticulated bone recovered during the stripping of the site produced an MNI (minimum number of individuals) of three adults and three juveniles. It is possible that these bones originated from some of the seven identified burials, but it is equally likely that at least some of the bones were from burials previously truncated in the area which were not identified during the present works. Development works ceased once the human skeletal remains appeared. It is extremely likely that these are only a small sample of the burials in this location and the likelihood is that there are many more burials both in this site and in the immediate area. The burials also represent the most recent archaeological phase on the site. The site is recorded on www.archaeology.ie as a graveyard, LI005-017144-. In addition, it is known that the site of the medieval church of St Nicholas, LI005-017114-, is located just to the south of the present development. Thus the identification of human burials at this site is not unexpected. As far as could be determined, most of the burials were extended, with the head to the south-west, an entirely normal orientation in terms of Christian burials. The exception was Skeleton 2, c. 3 years, which lay with the head to the north-east. The only adult in the in situ burials was buried in a prone position, lying on the stomach, and was possibly female, although this was based only on morphological features. The pelvis is a more reliable indicator of sex, but exposure of other bones during the present assessment would simply accelerate decomposition of the remains, and the premise was always on minimal disturbance of the remains. After analysis by the osteo-archaeologist, the burials were covered in terram, a layer of sand, then a layer of reinforced concrete, and so are preserved in situ. These works were also monitored' (www.excavations.ie). Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 25 July 2019