Croppy Acre

paky

I was speaken to an old bloke in collins barracks the other day and asked him about croppy acre. He said to me that the area was used to dump executed rebels after 1798. Ive pasted this place for years and never new this. He also said that during the excavations that they never found any remains?? Is this true?

P. Breathnach

I can't give you any citations on this, but I remember reading a little about it. Apparently there were executions and burials in the area, and the identification of the site known as the Croppy's Acre was guesswork rather than based on firm knowledge or records. The piece that I read was about the failure to find evidence of burials in the area traditionally known as the Croppy's Acre.

mattjack

I worked on some of the earlier Collins Barracks refurbishments and I can remember the Croppy acre being excavated and hearing nothing was ever found.About fifteen years ago or so.
There was an elderly gent who was on the site one who wrote articles for newspapers ,he always reckoned there were remains in the Barracks itself .Wolfe Tone cut his throat in the Provost Prison there.

P. Breathnach

mattjack wrote: »

I worked on some of the earlier Collins Barracks refurbishments and I can remember the Croppy acre being excavated and hearing nothing was ever found.About fifteen years ago or so.
There was an elderly gent who was on the site one who wrote articles for newspapers ,he always reckoned there were remains in the Barracks itself .Wolfe Tone cut his throat in the Provost Prison there.

That is consistent with what I remember reading.

premierlass

I have read, and can't remember where, that repeated flooding eventually washed away the bodies. Others say that the bodies were covered in lime, which would account for nothing being found.

http://republican-news.org/archive/1998/October01/01hist.html

This is a good article by Aengus Ó Snodaigh about the history of the Croppy acre.

Fratton Fred

premierlass wrote: »

I have read, and can't remember where, that repeated flooding eventually washed away the bodies. Others say that the bodies were covered in lime, which would account for nothing being found.

http://republican-news.org/archive/1998/October01/01hist.html

This is a good article by Aengus Ó Snodaigh about the history of the Croppy acre.

I can't see either of those events destroying all evidence of 300 bodies.

Is this possibly an urban myth?

premierlass

Fratton Fred wrote: »

I can't see either of those events destroying all evidence of 300 bodies.

Is this possibly an urban myth?

Very possibly. To be honest, it doesn't make a huge amount of sense to me either.

Delancey

Was the Croppy Acre where the army played football when Collins barracks was still in use - in front of the main gate ?

mattjack

Delancey wrote: »

Was the Croppy Acre where the army played football when Collins barracks was still in use - in front of the main gate ?

yes

dubhthach

There's also the problem that the course of river liffey was changed here with the construction of Victoria Quay and what is now "Wolf tone quay" in the 19th century. Before that the river actually went through part of the site. Compare the following map from 1798 with the current one:



This is why there is strange bend in river under "Seán Heuston" Bridge, if you look at course it looks like it should continue on northbound turn (through western part of Croppy's Acre) instead it makes a sudden southbound turn. This is due to the 19th century alteration of course.

Judgement Day

That's some map - any chance of a link to it?

shanew

Judgement Day wrote: »

That's some map - any chance of a link to it?

http://dublin1798.com/



S.

dubhthach

You can also compare it to the OS 6" map from 1830's-40's that will give you and idea of changes over a 50 year timeframe in Dublin

http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,713716,734519,6,8

Looks like you can buy 1797 map here:
http://www.worldmapsonline.com/historicalmaps/kr-1797-dublin.htm

Of course there are famous Rocque maps from 1740's-1750's as well don't see any free online versions