Cork City Council spent €7 million on the refurbishment of Bishop Lucey Park

By Peter McCarthy, Corkman

Refurbishing Cork city’s Bishop Lucey Park has cost around €7 million, city council officials confirmed this week.

Closed for renovations for almost two years, the small park on the Grand Parade is set to be re-opened by the city’s Lord Mayor on Friday.

Responding to a question by Cllr Michelle Gould, council officials said the restoration works at the 39,000-square-metre park is projected to cost approximately €7m, excluding VAT, but that the final cost won’t be known until works are fully completed.

The restoration works include soft and hard landscaping, upgraded lighting, the installation of feature structures, the conservation of sculptures, and repairs to boundary walls and historic railings. A grant from the government’s Urban Regeneration and Development Fund has covered 75pc of the cost with Cork City Council funding the remainder.

The redeveloped park will include improved access to the historic city wall, a new events pavilion and plaza, improved access and seating, and a new tower to mark the eastern entrance. First opened in 1985, the park is named after Bishop Con Lucey, who was the Catholic Bishop of Cork from 1952 till 1980. In July a majority of city councillors voted in favour of a motion calling for the city’s chief executive to undertake a process to explore the renaming of the park.

Cllr Niamh O’Connor, one of the councillors who put forward the motion, said that “when the new park opens it will bear absolutely no resemblance to the park that was there previously. A new park presents a unique opportunity to choose a name that reflects what we value as a city. Ultimately the people of Cork will decide the name of the park and that is exactly how it should be.”

The Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Fergal Dennehy, will officially reopen the redeveloped park as well as a new pedestrian bridge at Lambley’s Lane on Friday afternoon. The works are part of the Grand Parade Quarter project, a renewal of the area around the southern gateway to the medieval city, connecting the Grand Parade and a series of historic lanes, streets and Bishop Lucey Park with the south channel of the River Lee and the city centre business core. The city council has described the project as one of the most transformative and ambitious public realm programmes ever undertaken in the city.