A travel blog of Ireland, Europe, and New Zealand

Today is Good Friday, and a glorious sunny day it is too. I decided not to stray too far from home, so set out for the famed Glasnevin Cemetery, which is nearby. It was set up in 1832 by Daniel O’Connell to allow for burials of those of any belief or none, quite radical in its day. There are many bodies interred in mass graves here, of poor people who died in a variety of disease-plagues that hit Dublin. When you see the photo of Charles Stewart Parnell’s grave, for instance, while it looks as though he’s got a grand site all to himself, all around the poor guy are HUNDREDS of corpses of people who died in this way, buried twelve feet deep and up!

Anyway, it sounds a morbid topic but was actually a fascinating morning, so I have constructed a photo essay which can be seen at https://onedrive.live.com/?gologin=1&mkt=en-NZ#cid=369E7C0E3B80343D&id=369E7C0E3B80343D%21121 if you would like the full story and a whole lot more photos.

I was delighted to find the grave of Kevin Barry. When I was a little girl, preschool from memory, an Irish friend of my grandmother taught me the song about Kevin Barry, which I can still sing at the drop of a hat (most people have learned not to drop hats around me!) “In Mountjoy jail one Sunday morning, high up on a gallows tree, Kevin Barry gave his young life for the cause of liberty…”

Parnell, another famous figure, fought ferociously (aggressive alliteration there – Ed.) for home rule for Ireland throughout his life, and while he’d not succeeded in this by the time he had to step down from being ‘the uncrowned king of Ireland’ (as one view had it), he was obviously an ardent patriot. His liaison with a woman who was still officially
married was his undoing, and he died at the age of 45.

All in all, it was a stimulating and interesting morning, in glorious sunshine and not much chill wind! I leave you with a picture of a Dublin blossom tree in springtime….