[2] From 1998 to 2001, Dublin City Council redeveloped the park as an "urban plaza".

[5] The site, formerly the graveyard of St Mary's Church, was the burial place of the United Irishman Archibald Hamilton Rowan (1751–1834), Mary Mercer, founder of Mercer's Hospital (died 1734), the philosopher Francis Hutcheson (1694–1746), Sir Boyle Roche, 1st Baronet (1736–1807), an Irish politician and member of the Irish House of Commons, and Lord Norbury (1745–1831; known colloquially as the hanging judge).

[6] The church and its graveyard were deconsecrated in 1966, and the gravestones were moved or removed.

[2][6] From the 1960s to the 1990s, the site operated as a greenspace, maintained by Dublin City Council.

[10] Ultimately the park was closed between 2020 and 2022, and Dublin City Council redeveloped and "restore[d] it to a green space".