Back in August 2021 my my first visit to this cemetery did not go well as there was very heavy rain for the duration of my visit which I had to abandon. I then had to wait for more than 90 minutes for a bus [216] back to the city centre which was really annoying as I could have walked in less than half the time. I suspect that the frequency of the service may have been reduced because of covid restrictions. I did not realise that buses run every 10 minutes between Cork and Wilton Road, stop 240571 which is close to the cemetery.
This year the weather was beautiful and I spent about an hour photographing at random. This time I only had to wait 5 minutes for the number 216 bus and when I boarding the bus the driver mentioned that the bus stopped near a very interesting old graveyard in Douglas. I took his advice.
St. Finbarr’s Cemetery in Cork, Ireland, is the city’s largest and one of the oldest cemeteries in Ireland which is still in use. Located on the Glasheen Road, it was first opened in the 1860s. The entrance gateway was erected circa 1865, and the mortuary chapel consecrated in 1867.
Many of the early burials were of the wealthy citizens of the city. Unlike older cemeteries, St. Finbarr’s was professionally laid out with numbered pathways and wide avenues.
Among those buried at St. Finbarr’s Cemetery are hurler and Taoiseach Jack Lynch; the sculptor Seamus Murphy, the antiquarian Richard Rolt Brash who was among the first to decipher writing in the ancient Ogham writing style; the English composer Arnold Bax; and Cork’s first Lord Mayor Daniel Hegarty.
St. Finbarr’s contains one of the largest burial plots of Irish Republicans who died during the 1920s. There are also more recent burials of members of the Provisional IRA and the Official IRA. This is known as the Cork Republican Plot, and among those buried there are former Lords Mayor of Cork Terence McSwiney and Tomás Mac Curtain, hunger striker Joseph Murphy. In the early hours of 17 March 1963, in protest at the unveiling later that day of a monument in the Republican Plot by President De Valera, IRA volunteers Desmond Swanton and Jeremiah Madden attempted to blow up the monument. However, during this attempt there was an explosion which killed Swanton and severely injured Madden (who lost an eye and a leg). [5] Other republicans who are buried at St. Finbarr’s, but not in the Republican Plot, include Flying Column leader Tom Barry, government minister J. J. Walsh and Dan “Sandow” O’Donovan. Commemorations of the 1916 Rising are held annually at the Republican Plot on Easter Sunday by various groups including Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil, the Workers’ Party of Ireland and Republican Sinn Féin.
The “musicians’ corner” contains the graves of Aloys Fleischmann (Senior) and Aloys Fleischmann, and the composer Arnold Bax.
It also contains a mass grave containing the remains of 72 women who died at St. Vincent’s Magdalene Laundry on Peacock Lane in Cork. A family of an identified women buried in this grave have called for the site to be investigated.
The site now occupied by Belfast City Hall was once the home of the White Linen Hall, an important international Linen Exchange. The street that runs from the back door of Belfast City Hall through the middle of Linen Quarter is Linen Hall Street.
Plans for the City Hall began in 1888 when Belfast was awarded city status by Queen Victoria. This was in recognition of Belfast’s rapid expansion and thriving linen, rope-making, shipbuilding and engineering industries. During this period Belfast briefly overtook Dublin as the most populous city in Ireland.
Construction began in 1898 under the supervision of architect Sir Alfred Brumwell Thomas and was completed in 1906 at a cost of £369,000. Belfast Corporation, now the council, its their profits from the gas industry to pay for the construction of the Belfast City Hall. Local firms H&J Martin and WH Stephens were among the companies involved in the construction. James G. Gamble, architect, was the clerk of works.
The city hall in Durban, South Africa is almost an exact replica of Belfast’s City Hall. It was built in 1910 and designed by Stanley G. Hudson, who was inspired by the Belfast design. The Port of Liverpool Building, designed by Arnold Thornley and completed in 1913, is another very close relative.
On 1 August 2006 the City Hall celebrated its centenary with a “Century of Memories” exhibition and family picnic day.
The gardens surrounding the City Hall are popular with office workers taking their lunch in the summer months, as well as tourists and teenagers gathering in their dozens to enjoy the green.
Various statues stand in the grounds, including one of Queen Victoria by Sir Thomas Brock. There is also a granite column dedicated to the American Expeditionary Force, many of whom were based in Belfast prior to D-Day.
Brock also designed the marble figure of Thane, the Titanic Memorial, in memorial to the victims of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. The ship was built in Harland and Wolff’s shipyard located in the east of the city. The monument was originally located at the front gate of City Hall, at the junction of Donegall Square North and Donegall Place.
There is a memorial to Sir Edward Harland, the former head of the Harland and Wolff shipyard and Lord Mayor of Belfast from 1885 to 1886. It too was sculpted by Thomas Brock.
The grounds also house Northern Ireland’s main war memorial, the Garden of Remembrance and Cenotaph, at which wreaths are laid on Remembrance Day.
James Magennis VC, the only Northern Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross during World War II, is also commemorated in the grounds. The Leading Seaman won the medal while serving in the Far East in 1945. A 6-foot-high (1.8 m) memorial to Magennis, made from Portland stone and bronze, stands in front of the City Hall. It was erected in 1999.
On 3 January 2006 Belfast City Councillors ratified a plan to erect a statue to the late Belfast footballer George Best in the grounds of the City Hall. Following approval from the Best family, the George Best Memorial Trust was created in December 2006. The trust’s patron David Healy contributed £1,000 to the estimated total cost of £200,000. To date, 2019, this memorial has not be erected.
In 2008, the Imjin River Memorial was relocated here when the St Patrick’s Barracks in Ballymena closed. The memorial commemorates Irish troops lost in the Battle of Chaegunghyon in January 1951 during the Korean War.
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