Heritage campaigners in Cork have vowed to prevent a derelict Huguenot graveyard in the city centre from being turned into a coffee shop/exhibition area.
John Murphy, a Cork restaurateur and business owner, is seeking planning permission to build on the site of a tiny graveyard in the busy shopping precinct of Carey's Lane.
However, objectors to the project, who have founded a group called Friends of the Huguenot Cemetery, insist that the cemetery is consecrated ground and should be preserved as a unique historical asset.
Founding member of the group, Petra Coffey, who has spent the past 20 years researching the Huguenots in Ireland, says the cemetery is an invaluable piece of history.
"The cemetery is in consecrated grounds and there are strict guidelines about doing anything on archaeological remains. If any of the bones were removed there would have to be a religious ceremony. The owner wants to make it in to a coffee shop/exhibition area. He should not be allowed build there. This is a piece of Cork history."
A Huguenot church was built on the site in Cork in 1712 and a burial ground was recorded there in 1733. In 1845 the church was demolished and replaced by a Methodist chapel. Some time later it was used for Presbyterian worship.
In 1901, four remaining Huguenot gravestones were recorded on the site, but in living memory there has not been a graveyard there. Two of the visible gravestones were dated 1779 and 1789.
It is understood the first Huguenots were living in a small colony in Cork by 1569. The French Protestants were followers of Jean Calvin who fled their country to escape religious persecution. Over the years they produced 12 lord mayors of Cork and the graveyard contains the remains of Vesien Pique, mayor of the city in 1796.
This is the third planning application that has been lodged for the site. Two previous applications in 1989 and 2001 failed.
Last month, Ireland's Huguenots were commemorated in a special service of thanksgiving at the Unitarian Church in Princes Street in Cork, the first service of its kind in over 200 years.