On the third day of my 2022 visit to Limerick I walked from the City Centre to Mount St Lawrence Cemetery and it did not take as long as I had expected. This visit I used my Sony 24-70mm lens which I use infrequently but I do like it but I am more inclined to select a prime rather than a zoom.
The cemetery is well maintained and there are signs of improvements every time I visit.
Commencing in 2012, Limerick Archives digitised the original burial registers to preserve these unique and valuable documents. The joint project with Mary Immaculate had three specific aims. To complete the transcription process to create a searchable database of the burial register entries, to map the cemetery grave markers using GPS technology, and to produce a history of Mount Saint Lawrence cemetery. The digital recreation of the graveyard itself has allowed historians, researchers and the general public to trace their ancestors’ deaths and burial places, and it is one of the Archives’ most utilised resources.
In August 20th 2013, Mayor of Limerick Kathleen Leddin launched the online database which holds information on the 70,000 buried in the graveyard, dating from 1855 to 2008. This database will eventually contain information such as the names, addresses, times of death, position of graves, ages and dates of deaths of those buried in Mount St. Lawrence. This will contribute greatly to the city and surrounding areas. The city can use the information on the records to give accurate figures on the mortality rate, for example. It will also help to discover what the problems were in the hospitals of Limerick back in those times and why the death rate was so high.
Cemeteries in Limerick began to fall under immense pressure due to cholera epidemics in the 1830’s and the Great Famine in the 1840’s. This led to the founding of Mount St. Lawrence cemetery. Originally it formed part of the larger medieval parish of St. Lawrence in Limerick. This parish also contained a leper hospital, granted by King John, which was later returned to Limerick Corporation. They then leased some of the land to the Limerick Diocese for use as burials grounds. Mount St. Lawrence was officially opened on March 29th 1849 in a ceremony presided over by Dr John Ryan, Bishop of Limerick at this time.
The Neo-Gothic Church was designed as a mortuary chapel by architects M & S Hennessy, who also designed the tall spire of St. John’s Cathedral, which is now a notable point in Limerick City. It was designed in Celtic and Gothic Revival styles with an Arts and Crafts influenced interior. Mount St Lawrence graveyard was the primary place of burial in Limerick City for all members and classes of society, from the wealthy and powerful to those poverty stricken.
Mount Saint Lawrence has always contained plots reserved for certain groups, for example, religious graves, diocesan graves and a Republican plot.
On the 29 March 1849 Mount Saint Lawrence Cemetery was opened on an 18 acres site on Mulgrave Street to alleviate the overcrowded city graveyards. From 1849 until 1979 the cemetery was run by the Catholic Church and in 1979 it was taken over by Limerick City Council and the day to day running of the Cemetery is by the Environment Department.
Mount Saint Lawrence Cemetery was the primary place of burial in Limerick for all strata of society, from the wealthy to those who died in the Lunatic Asylum and Workhouses. The more prominent families tended to be buried along the central path close to the chapel. The ‘Poor Squares’ were located at the top of the cemetery at the left hand corner and in the bottom right corner.
Burial Records date from March, 1855 and the Burial Register records that over 70,000 individuals have been interred in Mount Saint Lawrence, up to 2009. The oldest individual recorded in the register is Mary Keane of Thomondgate, buried on 24th January, 1880 at the age of 110.
Over the years I have been advised to avoid cemeteries in Belfast and that Belfast City Cemetery, in particular, was to be avoided especially if you had an expensive camera. Last year I decided the get the Glider to the cemetery but on arrival I had to leave because of anti-social behaviour by some very drunk people who had targeted a person in a wheelchair and a number of other people got involved.
This year the head chef in the hotel, where I stayed for the week, and a local priest who I met while photographing a church suggested that I should try again but to go there around ten or eleven in the morning. I took their advice but for various reasons I did not arrive until about two o’clock. I remained for about two hours and photographed at random and did not try to locate “notable” graves.
Belfast City Cemetery is a large cemetery in west Belfast. It lies within the townland of Ballymurphy, between Falls Road and Springfield Road, near Milltown Cemetery. It is maintained by Belfast City Council. According to many reports vandalism in the cemetery is widespread.
Following the Belfast Burial Ground Act (1866), the cemetery was opened on August 1, 1869 as a cross denominational burial ground for the people of Belfast, a fast-growing Victorian town at the time. The land was purchased from Thomas Sinclair. The cemetery features cast iron fountains and separate Protestant and Catholic areas, divided by a sunken wall. Many of Belfast’s wealthiest families have plots in the cemetery, particularly those involved in the linen trade. Since its opening in 1869 around 226,000 people have been buried in the cemetery.
There has been an area set aside for Belfast’s Jewish residents since 1874. In this area is a memorial to Daniel Joseph Jaffe. Daniel Jaffe was the father of Otto Jaffe, a Jewish linen exporter and former Lord Mayor of Belfast. Above the old Jewish entrance to the cemetery, Hebrew writing can clearly be identified.
In 1916 an area was dedicated to soldiers who died serving in World War I, when 296 Commonwealth service personnel were buried in the cemetery. Those whose graves could not be marked by headstones are listed on Screen Wall memorial in Plot H.[3] Many of the United States Army personnel killed in the sinking of HMS Otranto in 1918 were buried in the graveyard. After the war their bodies were exhumed and repatriated to the United States.
In World War II, 274 Commonwealth service personnel, 5 of them unidentified, were buried in the cemetery, besides 3 Norwegian nationals whose graves are also maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
As the frequent target of vandalism, many of the British Army soldiers’ headstones were moved to Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park. In 2012, continuing vandalism of the World War I Screen Wall has led to proposals to move it to another part of the cemetery. Due to its historical importance, the cemetery is a popular tourist attraction in Belfast, with guided tours available.
On 8 April 2006, Denis Donaldson was buried in the cemetery. Donaldson was a former IRA member and Sinn Féin politician. He was killed shortly after being named as a British spy. His burial in the City Cemetery rather than in the republican plot of Milltown Cemetery was significant, as it was seen as a final snub by the republican movement.
ST NAHI’S IN DUNDRUM AN 18th CENTURY CHURCH AND GRAVEYARD
If you visit the graveyard be aware that as sections are in very poor condition it is easy to trip and fall.
The name Taney derives from Tigh Naithi meaning the house or place of Nahi, and who may also be associated with Tobarnea, a seashore well near Blackrock. The current church is still in use by the local Church of Ireland community and is one of two churches in the Parish of Taney (historically encompassing the whole area around Dundrum). It is built on the site of an early Irish monastery founded by Saint NahÍ.
St. Nahi’s stands on the grounds of the original monastery, having been refurbished several times, most recently in 1910, after a period when it was in use as the parish boys’ school. Following storm damage to the roof, a major refurbishment was carried out by the then Rector of the Parish, Canon William Monk Gibbon (father of the poet of the same name), who is buried in the grounds of the church. A plaque erected after the refurbishment reads:
The entrance gate to this Churchyard was erected by the parishioners of Taney Parish to the memory of William Monk Gibbons, Canon of Christ Church Cathedral by whose impression and effort the restoration of this church was accomplished. He repaired the altar of the Lord.
The church contains some interesting artefacts including the baptismal font of the Duke of Wellington who was baptised in 1769, donated to Taney Parish in 1914 by the closing of St. Kevin’s Church in Camden Row, and altar tapestries depicting scenes from the Bible. The tapestries illustrating the Last Supper were made by the two Yeats sisters Lily and Lolly Yeats, both of whom are interred in the graveyard.
Two Rathdown Slabs are displayed inside the church. These ornate burial slabs date back 1,000 years to the Viking-Christian era. Such slabs have only been found in the barony of Rathdown (the area roughly covering Churchtown to Bray). Only about 30 of these slabs have been discovered to date, these two were discovered in 2002 in the graveyard by archaeologist Chris Corlett, who had missed his bus from Dundrum and decided to explore the cemetery. Local historian John Lennon, as well as Harry Griffith, aided by Dúchas, relocated the slabs inside the church. Harry Griffith has been researching and listing the graves in St. Nahi’s graveyard since 2001, compiling a comprehensive history and listing of the graveyard. Harry Griffith was interred in the graveyard after an illness on 18 April 2012.
An insight into life expectancy for the area can be gleaned from the “Index to the Register of Burials” for the parish between January 1897 and April 1917 show 1,836 people buried during this period, of which 551 were children under 6 years of age.
The organ of St. Nahi’s was built by the renowned Irish organ-builder William Telford. However, St. Nahi’s was not its original home. The organ was only installed there in the 1990s. The church used a harmonium (which is still there) to lead congregational singing. The organ has one manual, pedal of limited compass and seven stops.
Cremated remains are interred to the left of the entrance gates. This area was originally used for patients of the Dundrum Central Mental Hospital. Old records refer to this area as the Asylum Plot.
A back gate to the church was only recently uncovered under much overgrowth. Although it had been used by teachers as a shortcut between the Church (when it was being used as a boys’ school) and the nearby girls’ school, its original function is said to have been as an entrance for Roman Catholics when attending funerals at a time when they were barred from entering the main gates of a Protestant church.
Many Irish Republican graves lie within the graveyard, including the gravestones of Lorcain McSuibhne, a member of the Irish Republican Army killed in 1922 in Kildare (his funeral occurred at St. Nahi’s and there exists photographic evidence of Éamon de Valera in attendance) and of James Burke, who was killed in Croke Park on Bloody Sunday.
The graveyard also contains many Royal Irish Constabulary Officers and Freemasons. There is one War grave. Sgt. William Anthony Kavanagh, RAF Volunteer Reserve, age 24, died 23 Sep 1944 as a result of a cycling accident while home on holiday, son of William and Mary Kavanagh of Balally. The site also contains the grave of the Irish physicist George Johnstone Stoney, who died in London in 1911. His ashes were brought back to be with his wife, mother and sister. His cousin Robert Stoney was a local curate when his wife died.
Currently over 10,000 burials have been recorded, with the earliest visible gravestone dating back to 1734. The Parish of Taney: a History of Dundrum, Near Dublin, and its Neighbourhood published in 1895, claims that there are “tens of thousands” of burials within the graveyard, a credible figure considering its age.
As the churchyard predates the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1869, it is open for burial to all those who live within the boundaries of the Parish of Taney, whatever their denomination.
THE FINDLATER FAMILY VAULT AT MOUNT JEROME CEMETERY
May 30th 2019 Alex Findlater died following a riding accident in Punjab, India.
In 1823 Alex. Findlater & Co. began trading in Dublin. The company was founded by Alexander Findlater, a hard working spirit merchant. He set up his business on Burgh Quay opposite the Custom House. From humble beginnings, the business grew rapidly and extensively not just in Dublin but into the United Kingdom also, expanding into other fields; trading in Wines, Teas, Coffees and Groceries.
In Dublin, the Findlaters prospered. By 1906, the company had expanded into groceries, tea and provisions, with 14 shops. They built Findlater’s Church on Parnell Square, as well as the Todd Burns department store on Mary Street. Their Mountjoy Brewery, established in 1852, was Dublin’s second-largest exporter of stout by 1866. They also operated hotels in Howth and Bray.
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BURIAL GROUND OF THE CLANCY FAMILY – ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL LIMERICK
This is strange as one would be surprised to see Roman Catholics buried within the grounds of a Church Of Ireland Cathedral. All those buried in the grave between 1729 and 2015 bear the family name including women who married into the family but excluding daughters who married out of the family.
My understanding is that the Clancys were Abbey Fishermen. The Abbey Fishermen were so called as almost all of the fisher families lived in the St. Francis Abbey area of Limerick city. This area was once inhabited by Franciscan monks.
You must be logged in to post a comment.