20th February 2003

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Sinn Fein call for Glasnevin Cemetery to be declared National Heritage Site

Sinn Fein Councillor Nicky Kehoe has called on the Minister for the Environment Martin Cullen to designate the old section of Glasnevin Cemetery as a National Heritage site in order to preserve it for posterity. He made his call following the recent vandalism to a large section of the old graveyard.

Councillor Kehoe said:

``The old section of Glasnevin cemetery is a very important site to the people of Dublin and indeed Ireland as a whole. Daniel O Connell established it as the first multi-denominational graveyard in Ireland. Because of the British Penal Laws, prior to the opening of Glasnevin in 1832, Irish Catholics had no cemeteries of their own in which to bury their dead.

``There are many important figures from Irish history buried here including Cathal Brugha, Jim Larkin, Countess Markievicz, Roger Casement and the Mountjoy Ten, to name but a few.

``I am calling on Minister Cullen to preserve this site for future generations, to designate it a National Heritage Site and to provide funds to maintain and promote it as a site of National importance.''

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