The place where Ireland’s history is written in stone

FEW places capture the turbulent history of Ireland quite like Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. Established in 1832, this vast burial ground has become the final resting place of politicians, revolutionaries, writers, soldiers and ordinary Dubliners. Behind its imposing headstones and peaceful avenues lie stories of rebellion, political division, body-snatching and attacks on national monuments.

Glasnevin Cemetery was established by Daniel O’Connell, the celebrated Irish Nationalist known as ‘The Liberator.’ At a time when restrictions surrounding Catholic burials created religious and political tensions, O’Connell championed the creation of a cemetery where people of all faiths could be buried with dignity. Opening in 1832 under the name Prospect Cemetery, it became an important symbol of religious equality. On the February 22, 1832, a young boy of only 11 years, Michael Carey, became the first person to be interred in the cemetery. Poor Michael, a Francis Street native, had died of consumption.

O’Connell himself would eventually occupy its most prominent resting place. His crypt, beneath the towering round tower erected in his memory, dominates the landscape. The monument commemorates a man whose campaign for Catholic emancipation transformed 19th-century Irish politics.

Yet Glasnevin was never simply a cemetery. It became a permanent record of a country struggling to define its identity, with the graves of those who fought for Irish independence standing alongside those who served the British establishment.

Prominent figures

Among Glasnevin’s most significant burials are many of the leading figures in Ireland’s struggle for independence. Charles Stewart Parnell, the great parliamentary nationalist, lies beneath a distinctive granite headstone. His political career came close to securing Home Rule for Ireland, but scandal and political division brought it to a premature end. His influence nevertheless endured long after his death in 1891.

The cemetery is also heavily associated with the revolutionary generation of the early 20th century. Michael Collins, the IRA leader and statesman killed during the Civil War in 1922, is buried here, as is Éamon de Valera, who played a central role in Irish political life for decades. Their presence reflects the bitter divisions that followed the signing of the infamous Treaty, when former comrades found themselves on opposing sides. Collins’ grave is said to be the most visitied in the cemetery and seems to be constantly decorated in fresh flowers.

Other notable graves include those of Countess Markievicz, a revolutionary and prominent woman in Irish political history; Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, the Fenian whose funeral in 1915 became a defining Nationalist spectacle; and Roger Casement, the Irish Nationalist executed for treason in 1916 and later reburied in Ireland.

The cemetery also contains the graves of writers, cultural figures, trade unionists and ordinary citizens—many of whom are from my own family—whose contributions may never have made the history books. Together, they tell a story broader than any single political movement.

Lesser known rebel

One of the cemetery’s less widely recognised stories concerns Charles Carrigan, an Irish Republican associated with the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), the secret revolutionary group that helped organised the Easter Rising of 1916.

Carrigan travelled from Scotland to Dublin with other members of the Scottish contingent of the Irish Volunteers in January 1916 to prepare for the upcoming Rebellion. They, along with others from the likes of Liverpool stayed in Count Plunkett’s house in Kimmage anticipating what was to come. On April 28, 1916, his 34th birthday, Carrigan was shot and killed along side the famous O'Rahilly during the fighting around Moore Street, as the rebels were evacuating the General Post Office area. In a eerie twist of fate, Charlie had been born on Moore Street in the Calton area of Glasgow on that day 34 years previous and he died fighting for Ireland on Moore Street, Dublin 34 years later. He was subsequently buried in Glasnevin Cemetery’s St Paul’s section in the Republican plot.

His story illustrates how the struggle for Irish independence extended far beyond Ireland itself. Men from Scotland and other parts of Britain joined the revolutionary movement, motivated by family connections, political conviction and the belief that Ireland should govern itself. Carrigan’s grave preserves the memory of a volunteer whose contribution is less familiar than those of the Rising’s celebrated leaders.

Loyalist attacks

In May 1994, a UVF death squad targeted a Republican function in the Widow Scallan’s pub on Pearse Street in Dublin, Martin ‘Doco’ Doherty a volunteer of the Dublin Brigade of the IRA prevented their attempts to plant a bomb on the premises and tragically was murdered in doing so. Doco gave his own life to save the hundreds present that night. He is laid to rest in Glasnevin, an annual commemorative march is held remembering his sacrifice.

The cemetery’s most famous monument was itself the target of political violence. In the early hours of January 17, 1971, an explosion damaged the base of the O’Connell Tower, destroying its internal staircase and damaging the surrounding area.

The attack was attributed to Loyalist paramilitaries and widely understood as retaliation for the destruction of Nelson’s Pillar on Dublin’s O’Connell Street in 1966. That earlier explosion had removed a prominent monument to British naval hero Admiral Horatio Nelson from the centre of the capital. Personally, I would have preferred if the pillar had of survived the explosion and Patrick Pearse now stood atop it instead of the monstrosity we have today in its place, nicknamed by Dubliners the ‘stiletto in the ghetto’ among other things.

Unsettling chapter

Among the most unsettling chapters in Glasnevin’s history is the trade in stolen corpses. During the 19th century, medical schools needed bodies for anatomical study, but legal supplies were limited. This created a market for so-called resurrectionists, men who secretly dug up newly buried corpses and sold them to surgeons and medical institutions.

Glasnevin’s high perimeter walls and watchtowers were built partly to prevent these nocturnal raids. Watchmen guarded the grounds, and dogs were reportedly used to patrol the cemetery at night. The elaborate defences reveal just how serious the problem of body snatching had become in Dublin.

Poorer people, whose graves were less likely to have expensive monuments or family protection, were particularly vulnerable. The fear of having a loved one’s body stolen added another layer of distress to families already struggling with poverty, disease and high mortality.

The cemetery’s walls therefore served a purpose beyond marking sacred ground, they protected the dead from a criminal trade that exploited the demands of medical science.

The Gravediggers

Just outside the cemetery walls stands John Kavanagh’s, the famous pub affectionately known as ‘The Gravediggers.’ Established in 1833, shortly after the cemetery opened, it became closely associated with cemetery workers and mourners alike.

Local tradition holds that gravediggers could knock on the wall and receive pints through an opening, allowing them to enjoy a drink without leaving their workplace. The precise details have become part of Dublin folklore, but the pub’s long association with cemetery workers is well established.

The Gravediggers remains one of the capital’s best-known traditional pubs, renowned for its atmosphere and historic character. Its proximity to Glasnevin makes it an essential part of the wider story of the cemetery, where the solemn business of burial has always existed alongside the everyday rituals of Dublin life. There are no televisions in the pub and the bar stands as it did in the 19th century, saloon doors and all.

Special site

Glasnevin Cemetery is much more than a collection of graves. It is a place where the personal and political histories of Ireland intersect, from Daniel O’Connell’s campaign for religious equality to Charles Carrigan’s sacrifice in 1916, to the later violence directed at national monuments.

Its graves commemorate celebrated leaders, but its burial grounds also remember the countless ordinary people who died during famine, epidemics and periods of hardship. The cemetery’s walls recall fears of body-snatchers, while the nearby Gravediggers preserves a more humorous strand of local tradition.

Every monument tells part of a larger story. Together, they make Glasnevin one of Ireland’s most important historical sites, a place where the country’s triumphs, tragedies, divisions and enduring traditions remain visible in stone.