| A grave tale of the dead famous |
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| Thursday, 08 May 2008 | |
 The local graveyard is generally not the place people pop around to for a spot of light entertainment, but a local historian on the Southside says that one particular cemetery in Dún Laoghaire Rathdown is worth visiting, if only to learn about its famous inhabitants.Deansgrange Cemetery may not be as well known as its Northside counterpart in Glasnevin but Ray Bateson says the graveyard rivals many others for the number of famous people interred there. As a local historian, Mr Bateson will soon publish a book on the personal stories of the people who were killed during the 1916 rising and subsequently buried in Deansgrange. He conducts tours of the graveyard every month and two councillors in Dún Laoghaire Rathdown recently accompanied him on a tour visiting the graves of Irish volunteers, British soldiers and civilians who were killed during the ill-fated rebellion. Married Each grave has its own personal story. One such grave is that of a British officer who was killed in the battle for Mount Street Bridge. He was married to an Irish woman from Blackrock. The visitors were also brought to the graves of some of the civilians murdered by British soldiers in the infamous North King Street massacre. Another interesting grave is that of Kathleen Lynn who was one of the first women to graduate in Medicine from UCD. She was a medical officer in the College of Surgeons during the rising. Perhaps the most famous 1916 revolutionary buried in the cemetery is former Taoiseach Sean Lemass. The last grave visited is one shared by British soldiers and Irish volunteers, a fitting symbol of peaceful reconciliation after the years of conflict between the two nations. Cllr Barry Conway (FF) who recently joined Mr Bateson encouraged members of the public to visit Deansgrange. “I found the tour particularly appealing because it covered the casualties on all sides and therefore gave a balanced and poignant view of the impact of the rising on ordinary people,” he said. “Every gravestone has its own personal story behind it and Ray Bateson has a book on the graves, which will help people who are interested to explore the subject further.” Mr Bateson said that because of the chaos during the rising most people who were killed were buried in the graveyard closest to where they fell. “A lot of the problems in the rising were around Mount Street, so a lot of the soldiers were buried in Deansgrange,” he explained. “There were also a lot of people from Northumberland Road, Haddington Road and around that area that are buried there. “You had a lot of people dying in that week and the funeral people weren’t able to cope with the number of bodies. In fact, quite a few corpses were buried in Deansgrange without coffins. People were just buried in the nearest cemetery to where they died. Rising “There are also people who were killed in the 1916 rising who were related to the political leaders like Roger Casement’s brother, Ross McDonagh’s son and Eamon Ceannt’s wife as well as others that fought like Joe McGrath and Arthur Shiels.” He said that ordinary people and not just history buffs would enjoy the tours, which he gives once a month. “The idea of the tour is not so much to give the history of the rising but also to tell the story through the graves of those who died. I try to give more information on the people that died rather than on the battles.” In addition he said the notoriety of some of the people buried in Deansgrange Cemetery rivalled the fame of their deceased counterparts interred in Glasnevin Cemetery. “There is a great collection of notable graves in Deangrange,” he added. “You have Flan O’Brien and Frank O’Connor. You have actors like Barry Fitzgerald who won an Oscar. You have musicians, architects and artists. There is also Ireland’s only ever Nobel Prize winner for science, Ernest Walton. “There are a number of Taoisigh also buried there and there is John McCormack too. In many ways Deansgrange is even better than Glasnevin Cemetery. “Glasnevin has a collection of notable political figures and the likes of Brendan Behan and Gerard Manley Hopkins but after that you would be hard pushed to find anyone that ordinary people know.” Members of the public who would like to take part in Mr Bateson’s tours can contact him on 0868104359 or log on to his website at www.irishgraves.com |
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Developed by Kevin Flynn