The Ghosts of Irish Past

Glasnevin Cemetery

     As I mentioned earlier this week, my Irish History class was going to be taking a field trip to Glasnevin Cemetery. We had all come on Thursday assuming that after class we would all be loaded on a bus and taken to the cemetery. But when we walked into class and Professor Feeney began writing down bus directions, we all quickly realized that we were wrong. Getting out of class at 1:15 we had to be there by 2:30. It would take two buses and forty-five minutes to get there, not including bus wait time. We were supposed to have lunch from 1 to 2, but that became impossible. After following my friends up to their dorms so that the could drop off their stuff, I bolted down the salad that I had brought with me to eat and then we ran to the UCD bus stop. On the way to the Cemetery we met some new people from our class and it was not all that bad.

The headstone of Daniel O'Connell (the tower). Known as the Liberator, O'Connell got emancipation for Catholics in the 19th century. He would also campaign for a break with the United Kingdom and an independent Ireland. When he died in 1847, they built the tower as his headstone.

     Upon getting to the cemetery we quickly realized that Glasnevin was like no other place that we had ever seen. First of all, there is this HUGE tower that looks like Rapunzel lives at the top of. And I am not joking when I say this, it really does. And, unlike in the United States were headstones are not really that ornate or unique, in Glasnevin there are gigantic Celtic cross headstones everywhere as far as the eye can see. We got there at 2:35, and at first we thought we missed the Patrick Pearse speech rendition. Pearse was an Irish nationalist who took part, and would later be executed for, being one of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rebellion. He is know for giving a speech at the burial of another Fenian in 1915, which in incited many people. Here is an except from his speech:
      Our foes are strong and wise and wary; but, strong and wise and wary as they are, they cannot undo the miracles of God Who ripens in the hearts of young men the seeds sown by the young men of a former generation. And the seeds sown by the young men of '65 and '67are coming to their miraculous ripening today. Rulers and Defenders of the Realm had need to be wary if they would guard against such processes. Life springs from death; and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations. The Defenders of this Realm have worked well in secret and in the open. They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think that they have provided against everything; but, 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.

     One of the workers at the cemetery heard us though and told us that we had not missed it, and we ran in the direction she pointed in. We caught the oration, and it was actually quite beautiful to hear it spoken. After that, the class all met up and we were given a tour of the cemetery by one of the tour guides, Laura. I will tell you about the tour through pictures from here on out.

The grave of Michael Collins. Collins played a minor role in the Easter Rising, and after he was released from prison would eventually become Director of Intelligence for the the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and elected to the Irish Parliament (Dail). He would play a major role in the Irish-Anglo War and would help negotiate the Irish Free State Treaty. During the Irish Civil War he would be assassinated. In 1996, there was a movie made about his life "Michael Collins" staring Liam Neeson and Julia Roberts. We had to watch it for class, along with "The Wind that Shakes the Barley", which is also about the Irish Civil War and Free State negotiations; both of which I highly recommend. In the movie, Michael Collins' love interest is Kitty Kieran, who would go on and marry after his death. She names her second son Michael Collins and asked to be buried as close as possible to his grave (she is seven plots down). Talk about an awkward conversation to have with your fiance...

Glasnevin Cemetery opened in 1832 and was the first non denominational cemetery. Previously Catholics in Dublin had no cemeteries of their own in which to bury their dead and, as the repressive Penal Laws of the eighteenth century placed heavy restrictions on the public performance of Catholic services. The rich could pay to use a Protestant cemetery, but the poor had been forced to bury their dead in mass 'poor graves' outside the city. The cemetery currently houses 1.5 million bodies, most of which are buried in these poor graves. (Dublin currently has a population of about 1.3 million people). Interestingly enough, the price of plots goes up the closer you are to Michael Collins grave, which shows how beloved he is. If you want the plot the nearest open plot to him it will set you back about 100,000 euro.

Remember O'Connell Tower I was talking about earlier? This is the inside of it. Beautifully painted, and ornately down, it is stunning inside. There was once a staircase leading to the top of the tower, but during the Troubles (1960s to 1990s) the stairs were blown up twice in attempts to topple the tower. It is suspected that it was done by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). I would go into the reason behind the Troubles, but that would be a lecture in itself.

This quote is attributed to O'Connell, and is painted on the wall of his tomb. Here is a list of some of the other famous people that are buried in Glasnevin.graves of Charles Steward Parnell. Eamon de Valera (Irish President and political leader), Arthur Griffith (founder of Sinn Fein) , Roger Casement, Kevin Barry, Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa (Pearse gave his oration at Rossa's funeral), along with many other Republicans (those that wanted to break with England).

This is the grave of Charles Stewart Parnell.  Parnell led the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) as Member of Parliament (MP) through the period of Parliamentary nationalism in Ireland between 1875 and his death in 1891, despite being Protestant. In his later years Parnell would have a political fall from grace when it was revealed that he had been having an affair and produced children with a married woman, which did not go well with his Catholic constituents. It would split the IPP into two, the Parnellites and anti-Parnellites. He had so few supporters when he died that the only plot that they could bury him on was this one, which was on top of a mass cholera grave. The headstone was not added until 1940...

Arthur Griffith was the creator of a newspaper called Sinn Fein (Ourselves), which would later become a political party with is still active in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland today. The fundamental principles on which Sinn Féin was founded were outlined in an article published in 1904 by Griffith called  The Resurrection of Hungary. Though not a monarchist himself, Griffith advocated such an approach for the Anglo-Irish  relationship, namely that Ireland should become a separate kingdom alongside Great Britain, the two forming a dual monarchy with a shared monarch but separate governments, as it was thought this solution would be more palatable to the British. He would be elected tot he Irish Dail, and upon the resignation of Eamon de Valera and the death of Michael Collins in 1922, he would be the president of the provisional government.

The grave of Eamon de Valera. Born in America to an Irish mother and a father of Spanish decent, de Valera was sent to Ireland as a child to live with relatives. He would take part, and be one of the leaders of, the 1916 Easter Rebellion; the only leader not to be executed, but instead imprisoned (probably due to his American citizenship). He was the president of the Dail and came out against the Free State Treaty, helping to ignite the civil war. After he would be president and taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland various times. He would start the political party Fianna Fail, which is still around today. According to Laura, (shown in the picture) people react very differently towards de Valera. Some fall on their knees and cry when they see his grave, say a prayer or Hail Marys, and others spit on his grave or walk by ignoring it and ask where Michael Collins is. Eamon de Valera and Collins were on separate sides of the civil war and many people still feel strongly about both of them.

One of the many beautiful headstones that are all around Glasnevin. Though I only covered the most famous people buried in the cemetery, I hope you all learned something, because I sure did on the tour. It was very interesting.