After reading the linked article, I am further convinced that these should be tagged as highway=footway. The article for highway=pedestrian states "Generally, mappers use pedestrian tag only on wider streets which might accommodate motor vehicles.". These streets cannot accommodate motor vehicles at all; in fact less so than most routes tagged with highway=footway.

Furthermore, the article describes how these exact areas could be more appropriately tagged as a pedestrian area with a highway=footway running through it. It was/is my intention to do this once the surrounding buildings are filled in.

As a basis for tagging these as highway=footway, I will refer you to the footpaths located with the University College Cork main campus, which I did not add myself. All the ones I have not edited myself are tagged as highway=footway, despite being much wider, having removable bollards to divide them from more active roadways, and regularly accommodating motorised maintenance vehicles.

These streets are not roadways. They are foot paths that never did or could accommodate motor traffic of any kind. They do not have the characteristics of a street such as separated sidewalks, raised curbs, traffic junctions or traffic rules of any kind. If this should be tagged as highway=pedestrian, the foot path tag is obsolete and every use of it should be changed. Does that seem appropriate?

It could, but there are also separate footpaths that could be added as sidewalks. This would account for when motor vehicles are allowed down the street but pedestrians can still use the paths

This is a steep drop off along the edge of the grass area, likely for drainage. I believe there is also a drain at the corner but I could be misremembering that. Perhaps this could be tagged better as some kind of embankment? I didn't feel the "ditch" tag was appropriate as this is rarely, if ever, filled with water

I believe the overlapping part is a stairwell of the student accomodation, not connected to the tesco express underneath, though the building kind of wraps around it. I am unsure of how to my it so feel free to simplify it or make it more precise

@VictorIE How should this rule be applied to areas such as School Grounds? E.g. Coláiste Choilm in Ballincollig has buildings that are all part of the school grounds, but some have distinct uses and some are general school buildings.
Should other School Grounds (or areas like hospitals, colleges, and fire stations), have their buildings labeled as School Buildings or just "Buildings"?