CORNMARKET DUBLIN
It appears that there are at least two different spellings: St. Audeon and St. Audoen. Anyway, St Ouen (or Audoen) of Rouen (Normandy) lived in the seventh century.
St. Audeon’s Park sits alongside St. Audoen’s Church at Cornmarket in Dublin city centre. The park features Dublin’s original stone walls and the last surviving entrance to the old city (St. Audoen’s Gate).
Before the renovation, the park was not well used and was regularly closed to the public. A consultation process was carried out to determine community perception and factors that had caused the park to fail as a public space. Antisocial behaviour was the main factor which had resulted in the local school feeling that the park was unsafe for children to use.
The objective of this renovation was to give the park back to the city and community, increasing its use and revealing its presence right in the heart of the old city. Simple day-to-day concerns were addressed by design such as the removal of overshadowing vegetation locally to improve sight lines and a very generous provision of new seating. This addressed a common concern arising from consultation around the use and comfort of the park as a destination and place within which to dwell for longer periods.
By reinvigorating the park through design and breaking down obstacles to accessibility, St. Audoens Church has gained a renewed presence in the park. This has substantially increased visitor numbers which in turn renders the park safer. It also provides a beautiful setting for church ceremonies, with the park now used for wedding celebrations. The park facilitates a good balance of tourist and local visitors.
St Audoen’s Church is the church of the parish of Saint Audoen in the Church of Ireland, located south of the River Liffey at Cornmarket in Dublin, Ireland. This was close to the centre of the medieval city. The parish is in the Diocese of Dublin and Glendalough. St Audoen’s is the oldest parish church in Dublin and is still used as such. There is a Roman Catholic church of the same name adjacent to it.
