An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir March 2018 www.dfmagazine.ie 26 | By sgt Wayne fitzgerald Photos By cPl lee coyle & sgt Wayne fitzgerald I n 1828 daniel o'connell set up the dublin cemeteries committee with a view to establishing a non-denomi- national burial ground in dublin - at that time catholics didn't have their own cemeteries due to the Penal laws. When a cholera epidemic broke out in 1832, Bully's Acre cemetery in Kilmainham began refusing burials after receiving 500 corpses in a ten-day period. As a result O'Connell's new cemetery received its first burial on 22nd February 1832; that of 11-year-old Michael Carey from Francis Street. Originally known as Prospect Cemetery, as the entrance was on Prospect Square, it soon became known as Glasnevin Cem- etery after the entrance moved to Finglas Road in 1879. Recently, An Cosantóir visited Glasnevin Cemetery, where Paddy Gleeson from the Glasnevin Trust kindly acted as our tour guide. The impressive wall, with its eight watchtowers, surround- ing the cemetery was built to deter body snatchers in the 1800s, and the cemetery's main focal point is the 168-foot round tower that is the final resting place of Daniel O'Connell. The cemetery has an abundance of greenery, including a huge variation of trees, some of which are over 200 years old, including oak, pine, yew, beech and cedar. The five most visited graves are those of Michael Collins, Charles Stewart Parnell, Roger Casement, Daniel O'Connell and Éamon de Valera. With far too many famous oc- cupants of the graveyard to men- tion, we focused on those with a military or revolutionary past. There are 17 WWI British Army chaplains at rest in Glasn- evin, including Very Reverend Francis Canon Gleeson, who is depicted on his horse in For- tunino Matania's famous painting The Last General Absolution of the Munsters at Rue du Bois. He also served as a chaplain to the Free State Army from February 1923. The Jesuit plot includes over 20 chaplains, one of whom, Fr Francis Browne, photographed the Titanic on its maiden voy- age from Southampton to Queenstown (now Cobh) in 1912. Fr Browne went on to serve as a chaplain to the Irish Guards in 1916 and saw action from the Battle of the Somme to Mes- sines Ridge, Ypres and Passchendaele. Another denizen of the cemetery is Col James Fitzmaurice, who served in the Great War as an infantryman before being commissioned. He transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in 1917, and stayed with them as they became the RAF, before resign- ing on the signing of the Treaty in December 1921, after which he returned home to serve in the newly formed Irish Air Corps. In 1928 he co-piloted the first successful east/west flight across the Atlantic from Ireland to America. Worth a visit on its own is the daily appearance, at 2.30pm, of an actor arriving in Irish Volunteer uniform as PH Pearse to re-enact, with great vigour, Pearse's oration at the grave of O'Donovan Rossa in 1915. We then visited the Necrology Wall, which was built in 2016 to commemorate those who died in the 1916 Easter Rising. The names of 485 people, including 58 rebels, 262 civilians, 13 RIC policemen and 107 British soldiers are listed in chronological order, culminating with Roger Casement on 3rd August 1916. Casement's remains were repatriated from the UK in 1965 for reinterment in Glasnevin. The Defence Forces plot contains many former soldiers, including Tpr Anthony Browne who was awarded the Military S T E E P E D I N H I S T O R y " " The fools, the fools, the fools! They have left us our Fenian dead and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace. Patrick Pearse's graveside oration at the funeral of O'Donovan Rossa in Glasnevin Cemetery, 1st August 1915.

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