LORETO APPLIES FOR REINSTATEMENT WORKS AT GRAVEYARD
The Loreto Sisters have applied for planning permission for a re-instatement project at the Loreto Graveyard in Spawell Road, a protected structure, where works were halted by the County Council last year.
An application has been received by the local authority on behalf of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary for the reconstruction of a perimeter plinth wall, the re-instatement of granite cappings and ironwork railings and gates, head stones, a memorial plaque and a granite stone cross along with the installation of new burial nameplates and a new gravel surface finish to the graveyard with an access footpath.
The application was submitted by Cormac Buggy of architectural conservation planning consultants Quinn, Barnwall, Buggy, with a report stating that the cemetery contains the remains of 44 Loreto sisters.
The separate adjoining lands, vacant school and convent are now up for sale and the graveyard is no longer part of the overall property.
In March of last year, council officials halted works in the graveyard as contractors carried out work on behalf of the Loreto Sisters.
Significant work took place at the historic graveyard before the county council took action after a concerned resident brought the matter to the attention of Cllr George Lawlor.
A council planner visited the site and ordered the work to stop. Speaking at the time, Sr Helen O’Riordain of the Loreto order said that no graves had been disturbed.
She said the work was being carried out to secure the site and ‘make it less dangerous’ as well as ‘making it as maintenance-free as possible’ with a view to the building eventually being sold.
The planning application report states that given the absence of any personnel on site and the age profile and low numbers of Loreto sisters in the county, maintenance works on the graveyard are becoming more and more difficult and increasingly unsustainable.
It was the intention of the Provincialiate that alteration works would be carried out to the surface finish of the graveyard for the purpose of trying to reduce the requirement for onerous maintenance works.
With this in mind, a contractor was engaged in the early part of 2019 to carry out upgrade works on the graveyard which included localised patch repairs to boundary walls, the removal of ironwork crosses, rubble stone steps, three headstones, a memoral plaque, a granite cross, ironwork railings, a pedestrian access, ironwork gates and gateposts, a tarmac pathway and lawn turf.
It was stated that all the removed items have been safely secured on site.
The Heritage Council, An Taisce and the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht received notice of the planning application.
Norman Ruddock of Richmond Terrace in Spawell Road, has objected to the application, saying there is no detailed identification of what lands are to remain in the ownership of the Loreto Sisters, while at the same time, a claim is made that rights of way will exist to the protected structure.
Mr Ruddock said no rights of way are recorded in the central register for the site and it is not clear how access to the graveyard will be provided, if as the application states, the Spawell Lane access will be the only one.
Claiming that the graveyard was ‘demolished illegally’, Mr Ruddock said in his objection that in the past year since the works were carried out, three parties have called to his house, looking to gain access to the graveyard, to remember relatives, whereas previously, visitors entered through the school
He said that it appeared to him ‘that what the Loreto Sisters want here is a low maintenance, ugly and forgetabble graveyard without any of the character and warmth of the graveyard as it was’.
‘The proposed reinstatement is not in keeping with the graveyard that was demolished illegally in 2019. There seems to be a complete lack of acknowledgement or responsibility for the serious nature of the demolition in 2019, in the planning application’, he wrote.
‘Given the powers granted to the planning department by the Oireachtas in order to prevent the destruction of protected structures and given the serious nature of the damage that was done to this protected structure, I believe that a better outcome should be possible for the Loreto graveyard, one that actually reinstates the character and setting of what was demolished and give the people of Wexford a heritage site that can be appreciated, while at the same time, allowing the relatives of those interred to visit a site of peace and contemplation’.