FOURTEEN OF THE SIXTEEN 1916 RISING LEADERS ARE BURIED HERE

FOURTEEN OF THE SIXTEEN 1916 RISING LEADERS ARE BURIED HERE - ARBOUR HILL

One of the most visited Dublin tourist attraction is Kilmainham Gaol, where 14 of the 16 Irish rebels of 1916 were executed but much less visited is their burial place.

When I visited today I overheard a group of Dubliners saying that they did not know that the place existed until nows.


The military cemetery at Arbour Hill is the last resting place of 14 of the executed leaders of the 1916 Rising.

There is an adjoining church, the chapel for Arbour Hill Prison. At the rear of the church lies the old cemetery, containing the graves of British military personnel.

The focus of Arbour Hill, however, is the legend of the rising. Among those buried here are Patrick Pearse, James Connolly and Major John MacBride. Their bodies were put into an unmarked pit and covered with quicklime, but their grave has now been saved from obscurity.

The graves are located under a low mound on a terrace of Wicklow granite in what was once the old prison yard. The grave site is surrounded by a limestone wall on which the names are inscribed in Irish and English. On the prison wall opposite the grave site is a plaque with the names of other people who were killed in 1916.

Arbour Hill Cemetery is at the rear of the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, where you can currently find a large display of 1916-related material.