FIONA WOODS / research / 2015 - 2021

Contested Site #2 was a co-production with Lucia Pola, a graphic designer and director of the co-working space, Old School, in the medieval quarter of Limerick city. 

Old School is part of a complex that was organised around St. Mary's Convent in Bishop Street, which included a primary school. The large convent building was demolished in the 1990's leaving a large, open field walled on three sides (one of which is the original medieval city wall). The Sisters of Mercy moved across the field to a purpose built block of apartments. Their graveyard is located in the field and is still tended by the remaining nuns. 

It is unclear who owns the land, although it seems highly likely that the Sisters of Mercy turned the land over to the state. In 2014, the Irish Wheelchair Association commissioned plans from Quinn Architects for a disabled housing and social centre, suggesting that they had been given the land. However, that building never materialised, for reasons that are not clear. 

The possibility of converting the field to a carpark has been mooted in the council, but nothing has come of that.