Mayor of Limerick visits burial site of 'hero' Patrick Sarsfield in Belgium
THE Mayor of the city and county of Limerick, has visited the site, in Belgium, where Patrick Sarsfield is thought to be buried.
Cllr Frances Foley travelled to the city of Huy with Dr Pat Daly, chief executive of Limerick City and County Council and Laura Flannery of the corporate & governance department as the project leader Dr Loïc Guyon and Frank Coyne (Director Archaeology Ltd) accessed, for the first time, the burial site.
The site where the former St Martin’s church used to stand was identified by Dr Guyon as the place where Sarsfield could be buried after he was fatally wounded in the service of France at the battle of Landen in 1693.
While there had been speculation that Sarsfield was buried there, Dr Guyon found historical evidence confirming it and was able to determine that a plot of land recently purchased by Huy City Council and consisting of the back garden of a townhouse was the exact spot where Sarsfield’s grave is located.
Upon accessing the site, Dr Guyon, Honorary Consul of France said: “After two-and-a-half years of research and after a first trip to Huy in 2021 when we couldn’t access the site as the purchase had not been finalised yet, it is very moving to finally get an opportunity to see it with my own eyes and get a feel of the place knowing that the remains of Patrick Sarsfield are most likely a few centimetres below the surface."
Dr Guyon went on to thank the local authority in Huy and, in particular, Stéphanie Ratz, heritage director, for clearing the site of vegetation before the arrival of the Limerick delegation.
Archaeologist Frank Coyne added: “Today is the first concrete step of a long process which will hopefully see preliminary work start this Autumn and a full excavation by the summer of 2024. Visualising the site and having a clear idea of its nature and proportions was essential to enable us to plan this Autumn’s work”.
Mayor Foley commented: “Huy and Limerick are bound together by history through the figure of Patrick Sarsfield, but also by a set of common values which we celebrated today and by a shared desire to strengthen our relationship for our mutual benefit. I call on all Limerick people to join in support of the Sarsfield Homecoming Project to get a chance to bring back to Limerick one of the city’s beloved heroes”.
In order to raise the necessary funding to conduct the archaeological excavation, the Sarsfield Homecoming Project has partnered with registered charity Alliance Française Limerick and launched a crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe which has already collected €3,000 in less than three weeks.
Corporate donations are also welcome and Mary Immaculate College has already pledged €5,000 to the project.