They were a vestige of the pandemic era but now they are no more. The 20 or so picnic tables with seats and planter boxes that were installed in Market Square as Kilkenny exited the initial Covid-19 lockdown have been removed by Kilkenny County Council. In their place are some new loading bays and parking spaces.
As the pandemic faded into the past, many city workers and school students still regularly used the tables to have their lunch or just to socialise. Littering and tidiness was often an issue, but most people made the best of it, and it was welcomed as an addition to the street furniture to meet growing demand for outdoor amenity spaces.
In 2021, it was announced that the space at Market Yard was to be developed into a permanent outdoor dining space, with a sum of €649,000 allocated by Fáilte Ireland. In 2022, Kilkenny County Council put forward new plans for this Market Square area, noting the seating scheme 'has proved so successful that it is now proposed to incorporate this area into the existing Market Square to provide an enhanced public space in the heart of Kilkenny’s medieval core.
"The enhanced Market Square shall be developed as a high-quality public realm area, incorporating a high standard of hard and soft landscaping. It is intended Market Square will be a pedestrian and cyclist dominated space, with limited vehicular access. Market Square is to be developed primarily as a shared surface with no vertical segregation of surfaces to be used by pedestrians and cyclists. Provision of seating for outdoor dining is an important aspect of this scheme."
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A carpark once again