Glasnevin Cemetery

Glasnevin Cemetery is the main Catholic cemetery in Dublin, the capital of Ireland.

Related Topics:
Catholic - Cemetery - Dublin - Ireland

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Glasnevin CemeteryThe round tower (centre) stands over the tomb of Daniel O'ConnellEamon de Valera's graveHis wife, Sinéad, and son, Brian (who was killed in a horse-riding accident in 1936) are buried there also. Monument to Ireland's war dead in World War IThe monument lists those buried in the cemetery who were killed in Irish Regiments of the British Army during the First World WarGlasnevin gravestonesThe picture shows a mid nineteenth century plain gravestone (centre) surrounded by versions of celtic crosses, which became the fashion in the late nineteenth century.

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Established in the middle of the 19th century to replace the old burial grounds within the city, Glasnevin Cemetery contains many historically interesting monuments as well as the graves of all of Ireland's most prominent revolutionary heroes - Charles Stewart Parnell and Daniel O'Connell as well as Michael Collins, Eamon de Valera and Constance Markiewicz a generation later.

Related Topics:
19th century - Glasnevin - Charles Stewart Parnell - Daniel O'Connell - Michael Collins - Eamon de Valera - Constance Markiewicz

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The cemetery also offers a fascinating view of the changing style of death monuments in Ireland over the last 200 years; from the austere simple high stone erections of the period up until the 1860s, to the elaborate celtic crosses of the nationalistic revival from the 1860s to 1960s, to the plain Italian marble of the late twentieth century.

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Nowadays, Glasnevin fascinates the visitor not only because of its historical graves, but also because of its unique atmosphere of unkept desolation and melancholy abandonment. It is a wasteland of greyish rubble, crumbling, listing, broken or fallen monuments and the occasional contemporary shabbiness that evokes a third-world air in the middle of the burgeoning Celtic Tiger capital.

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Glasnevin Cemetery reminds us how very recent Ireland's rise to economic power really is. As yet, the boom town Dublin has not found the time to prettify its past as it is represented at Glasnevin. Broken coverstones through which one may peer into the walled crypts make Glasnevin a memento mori that can no longer be found in most of the developed world's garden cemeteries that aim to pacify, hide and obliterate, not remember, death.

Related Topics:
Ireland - Dublin - Memento mori - Death

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