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Bringing Glasnevin back to life

Thursday, 21 August 2008

Glasnevin Cemetery is embarking on a major restoration project to be completed in time for the centenary celebrations of the 1916 Rising. GLASNEVIN Cemetery, the final resting place of our Republican forefathers, famous literary personages, sporting heroes, showbiz folk and ordinary citizens of Ireland, is in the process of undergoing a massive facelift.
The Dublin Cemeteries Committee, which oversees the operation of the city’s famous ‘dead centre’, will be transformed by an ambitious 10 year restoration plan in conjunction with the Office of Public Works which will restore the graveyard in time for the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising.
Funding of e2.5 million a year will be provided from the National Development Plan for the duration of the project.
Since the renovations started local historian, Shane MacThomais, has been conducting regular walking tours of the cemetery.
“The tours are available daily at 2.30pm, there is a charge for adults and kids go free,” explains MacThomais.
“Any monies raised from the tours goes straight back into the restoration project.”
If the weather is fine crowds of up to 40 people join the tours to hear MacThomais relate a litany of interesting facts and stories about the 120-acre graveyard that is the final resting place for over 1.5 million people.
“The graves of Eamon De Valera and Michael Collins are probably the ones most interest is expressed in, especially Collins whose grave is the most visited and flowered in the cemetery,” he says.
Kevin Barry, Roger Casement, Daniel O’Connell. Maude Gonne, Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, Jim Larkin and Sean MacBride are among the other well known historical

figures buried in Dublin’s best-known graveyard.
Indeed MacThomais’s own father, republican and broadcaster Eamon MacThomias, is also buried in the cemetery.
Part of the restoration project involves straightening and cleaning up many of the 220,000 headstones in the cemetery.
“Many of the headstones have sunk down into the ground at an angle, so we are straightening them up and doing some cleaning, although we don’t like to clean them up too much as it can actually erode the headstones,” says MacThomais.
Another major aspect of the renovation project will be the restoration of the imposing O’Connell Tower that stands guard as you enter the cemetery.
The tower houses the graves of Daniel O’Connell ‘The Liberator’ and his family. Constructed in 1860 it took 10 years to complete and is the tallest Round Tower in Ireland.
“There used to be a staircase running right up to the top, but following a bomb attack by Loyalists in the ‘70s the stairway was destroyed, but now we hope to replace it,” says MacThomias.
Tours of Glasnevin Cemetery start daily at 2.30pm. The charge is e8 for adults and e6 for old age pensioners. Children go for free.
For more information contact Glasnevin Cemetery on 8301133.

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