Mount St Lawrence Cemetery

LIMERICK JULY 2016

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If my memory serves me well I tried to photograph this interesting cemetery in 2015 but could not get to it as the roads were blocked by a very large funeral so one of my first tasks in July 2016 was to visit and photograph Mount Saint Lawrence Cemetery. When I visited there was not a single person to be seen which gave me complete freedom to explore.

Mount Saint Lawrence Cemetery, Limerick City is one of the five largest cemeteries in the Republic of Ireland, with an area of sixteen acres.

70,000 people are buried there, with another 5,500 in the Extension.

Before 1800, most burials took place in ‘graveyards’ or ‘churchyards’ located in or near the local church. By the middle of the 1800s, graveyards all over Europe were becoming overcrowded which led to the establishment of cemeteries, large purpose-built burial grounds laid out like a park.

In Limerick, the old churchyards had become overcrowded, creating the need for a cemetery. In 1849, Mount St Lawrence Cemetery was opened in the Institutional Quarter – the Medieval Parish of St. Lawrence where Limerick Prison and Mental Hospital were already situated.

An Extension adjoining the Cemetery was opened in 1960.

Mount Saint Lawrence was administered by the Catholic Diocese of Limerick from 1855 to 1979, when it was transferred to the management of Limerick Corporation (now Limerick City and County Council). It is currently administered by Limerick City and County Council’s Environment Department.

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