By: Leanne Salmon

Dublin City Council have opened a new €1.4m public park on Cork Street in The Liberties.

Weaver Park was officially opened on Monday morning at 11am by Ardmhéara Bhaile Átha Cliath, Mícháel Mac Donncha.

Speaking at the event on Monday morning, Mr Mac Donncha announced that the park is the first major project to be developed as part of The Liberties Greening Strategy.

“I am delighted to be here this morning to officially open Weaver Park. which is the first major project to be developed as part of The Liberties Greening Strategy.

 “I would like to congratulate Dublin City Council’s Parks and Landscape Services Division and the South Central Area Office together with Ait Urbanism Landscape Ltd and Bracegrade Ltd who designed and constructed this amenity.

 “I hope that people of all ages from the Dublin 8 area and beyond get great enjoyment from this new facility in this historic area,” he said.

 Head of Park Services for Dublin City Council, Leslie Moore, mentioned that the new park will accommodate local recreational needs.

 “The opening of Weaver Park in the Liberties reflects Dublin City Councils ambition to ensure that every community has access to a quality park.

“The collaborative design of the park with the community has also set a new standard for contemporary urban park design which will ensure that the park accommodates local recreational needs,” said Mr Moore.

Weaver Park features a lawn for games and activities, an enclosed play area, a skateboarding terrace, benches and a pergola.

The park is the first to be opened in the Liberties in nearly 100 years. St Patrick’s Park on Patrick Street was the last local park to be built in the Liberties.

Dublin City Council have estimated that 100 people attended the event on Monday morning, with 40 of those being children. Children from three local primary schools in the Liberties were invited to attend the event.

The schools that were invited to the event were Scoil Trease Naofa of Donore Avenue, St Brigid’s Primary School of The Coombe and St Catherine’s National School of Donore Avenue.

St Brigid’s Primary School Principal, Deirdre Early attended the event with some of her students.

“We definitely did think there was a park needed. As far as proper parks with amenities and with green area concerns, I’d say the Liberties was under-represented before,” said Ms Early.

“There’s quite a lot of plots and that around, which is great and there’s quite a lot of football pitches around near flat complexes but as regards full City Council city parks, I think they were under-represented,” said the Principal.

Weaver Park was built on the site of the former Chamber Court and Weaver’s Court flat complex. Works started on the park in January 2017.