On Tuesday I travelled by bus from Limerick University Campus to Mount St Lawrence Cemetery but the bus was diverted because of a very large funeral which could be described as “traditional” and I decided that it would better to return the next day. The weather forecast for Wednesday was not good, with rain predicted, but when I awakened early in the morning the weather was beautiful so I decided to walk to the cemetery and to bring a 15mm manual Voigtlander lens which explains why some of the images are distorted. As a matter of interest I use a Zeiss Batis 25mm lens when I visited in 2019 and I think that the images were slightly better.
As of August 20th 2013, Mayor of Limerick Kathleen Leddin launched an online database which holds information on the 70,000 buried in the graveyard, dating from 1855 to 2008. This database will 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.
BOHERMORE CEMETERY IN GALWAY – RESTING PLACE OF THE FAMOUS AND THE NOT SO FAMOUS
This was my second visit and while I did visit again in 2018 and 2019 the weather was too wet and windy for me to spend enough time there.
In 2016 I described this as a Victorian Style Graveyard but some people disagreed with this description. For example one person, who provided much useful information, commented as follows “ Victorian Style means meandering paths, lots of trees, and some water features to make it more like a park to visit. Also, Victorian cemeteries tend to be a bit more non-conformist with religious affiliation, but Bohermore, as you saw, is still very religious and pretty much just laid out to maximize the use of space.”
Another person complained, in a very long email, that I was in breach of copyright which was a claim that I did not understand. Note I had had asked for permission to photograph and was invited to return.
According to Wikipedia “The origins of the Victorian cemetery were based on Victorian ideas of regulation and structure, much like other parts of Victorian society such as workhouses, asylums and prisons. The Victorian cemetery was a new way of burying people due to innovative landscape design and architecture. After 1800 dedicated garden cemeteries were created to solve earlier problems with overcrowding and sanitation. Their designs were based on the idea of Arcadia.”
Bohermore is located in Galway, Ireland. The name is derived from the Irish literally meaning “the big road”. On the last day of my 2016 visit to Galway I walked at random around the area and came across this interesting cemetery and it was not what I would have expected if I had been looking for it. It is very well organised, well maintained and rather modern which may explain why the locals refer to it as the ’new cemetery’. This year, during a break in the weather, I revisited the cemetery but for some reason I was not as impressed as I had been back in 2016 but I cannot explain why I was less impressed.
As already mentioned I visited again in 2018 and 2019 but had to cancel my 2020 visit to Galway. I have booked a hotel for a week in June but I beginning to doubt that I will be able to travel because of travel restrictions.
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