Old Graves Archives - THE CHURCH AND THE GRAVE

CAMDEN ROW 10 FEBRUARY 2024

it is close to impossible to use any setting other than ISO100.

I will not be buying and new equipment this year but in 2025 I will need to consider what to buy. My preference would be the A1 [I am hoping that the Mk2 version will become available] but it is almost twice the price of the Sony A7RV and, to be honest, my A7RIV still performs very well so I have decided to skip the the 7RV. I am also considering the Fuji GFX100 II but it is expensive especially as I would to purchase a set of lenses and they are expensive.

The church was first mentioned in historical annals in 1226. It was situated some distance from the walls of Dublin, in the Irish-speaking part of the city, but close to a monastic settlement in the region of present-day Aungier Street. From the 13th century, it formed part of the Manor of St. Sepulchre, which was directly under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Dublin. An archaeological excavation carried out in 1967 uncovered some medieval graves and coins. The present ruined church, built on the foundations of the medieval one, dates to around 1750.

The church is the burial place of Archbishop Dermot O’Hurley, who was removed from a mass grave and interred here after his summary execution on 20 June 1584 at Hoggen Green. O’Hurley, ordained Archbishop of Cashel in 1581, was arrested after his return to Ireland and tortured in Dublin Castle. Along with 17 other Irish Catholic Martyrs, Archbishop O’Hurley was Beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1992.

In the early years of the Irish Confederate Wars (1641–1649), incursions were made into the church lands surrounding St. Kevin’s by Confederate soldiers stationed in Wicklow. Trenches were dug near the church to help defend the city, but the Irish clans were able to raid cattle, horses, and the occasional merchant who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, all of which they carried away into the “wilds of Wicklow”. Despite ceasefires being arranged, this situation continued until the Battle of Rathmines sealed the fate of the Confederate and Cavalier forces.

In 1698, the time of the Penal Laws, the church was offered to the Huguenot community as a place of worship and cemetery. The graveyard, however, continued to be used by Catholics until the end of the 19th century.

GET OFF THE TRAM STOP AT DRIMNAGH RATHER THAN AT THE GOLDENBRIDGE STOP

I was pleased to discover that this old and historic graveyard was open when I visited today. Many times, in the past, I could access the cemetery as the gates are generally locked because of anti-social actives [real or exaggerated].

Goldenbridge Cemetery is a Roman Catholic garden cemetery located in Inchicore, Dublin, Ireland.

Under the Penal Laws, Irish Catholics could only be buried in Church of Ireland (Anglican) cemeteries, and the full graveside rites could not be performed — only prayers from the (Anglican) Book of Common Prayer were permitted. Catholic emancipation came in the 1820s, and the three acres at Goldenbridge, purchased by the Catholic Association for £600, formed the first Catholic cemetery in Ireland since the Reformation. The first burial took place on 15 October 1828. A mortuary chapel in the form of a Roman temple was erected in 1829.

The cemetery was placed provocatively next to Richmond Barracks, a British Army installation. Complaints by the 92nd Regiment of Foot about noise and commotion caused by funeral processions passing their barracks led to a hearing by the Privy Council of Ireland. Abraham Brewster, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, limited future interments to those with burial rights only. Glasnevin Cemetery opened in 1832.

Mass burials took place during the Great Famine (1845–49) and during a cholera epidemic of 1867.

Until 2017, the last burial was of W. T. Cosgrave in 1965, first President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State. His grave, along with 26 others, were vandalised in 2014 but restored in 2016. On 4 October 2017, the son of W. T. Cosgrave, Liam Cosgrave, who had been Taoiseach from 1973 to 1977 died, and was subsequently buried in the family plot at Goldenbridge on 7 October 2017.

The cemetery now forms part of a tourist attraction with nearby Richmond Barracks.