Jump to content

Mount Jerome Cemetery and Crematorium

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Michaelskelton (talk | contribs) at 14:16, 10 October 2010 (Added *John Skelton (Irish Artist 1924-2009), Artist/Illustrator.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Mount Jerome Cemetery
The entrance to Mt. Jerome, on right.
Map
Details
Established1836
Location
Harold's Cross, Dublin
CountryIreland
Coordinates53°19′29″N 6°16′48″W / 53.32472°N 6.28000°W / 53.32472; -6.28000
TypePublic
Owned byGeneral Cemetery Company of Dublin
No. of gravesOver 300,000

Mount Jerome Cemetery (Irish: Reilig Chnoc Ieróim) is situated in Harold's Cross on the south side of Dublin, Ireland.[1] Since its foundation in 1836, it has witnessed over 300,000 burials. Originally an exclusively Protestant cemetery, Roman Catholics have also been buried there since the 1920s.

History

The name of the cemetery comes from an estate established there by the Reverend Stephen Jerome, who in 1639 was vicar of St. Kevin's Parish. At that time Harold's Cross was part of St. Kevin's Parish. In the latter half of the 17th century, the land passed into the ownership of the Earl of Meath, who in turn leased plots to prominent Dublin families. A house, Mount Jerome House, was constructed in one of these plots, and leased to John Keogh. In 1834, after an aborted attempt to set up a cemetery in the Phoenix Park, the General Cemetery Company of Dublin bought the Mount Jerome property, "for establishing a general cemetery in the neighbourhood of the city of Dublin".[2]

The Funerary Chapel Mount Jerome Cemetery was the first Puginian Gothic church in Dublin. It was designed by William Atkins.

Notable burials

Memorial to Sir William Wilde and Lady Wilde, parents of Oscar Wilde

Notable people buried here include:[3][4]

Grave of William Carleton

There is a large plot to the deceased members of the Royal Irish Constabulary and the Dublin Metropolitan Police.[3] The remains of French Huguenots from St. Peter's Churchyard, Peter's Row (now the location of the Dublin YMCA), which was demolished in the 1980s, and from St. Brigid's and St. Thomas's churchyards are interred in the cemetery.[3][8]

Recent burials include the notorious Martin Cahill (1949–1994) (known as "The General"). His gravestone has been vandalised on numerous occasions and is currently broken in two with the top half missing. His body has since been removed to an unmarked grave in the cemetery. [citation needed]

Flora

The cemetery has one of only two Christ-thorn bushes in Ireland (the other is in the Botanic Gardens).[3]

Literary references

  1. Then Mount Jerome for the protestants. Funerals all over the world everywhere every minute. Shovelling them under by the cartload doublequick. Thousands every hour. Too many in the world. Ulysses, Chapter 6, Hades episode, James Joyce.

References

  1. ^ Somerville-Large, Peter (1988). Dublin: The First Thousand Years. Belfast: The Appletree Press. p. 226. ISBN 0862812062.
  2. ^ Igoe, Vivien. Dublin Burial Grounds & Graveyards. Wolfhound Press, 2001. p. 172
  3. ^ a b c d Langtry, Joe and Nikki Carter, eds. Mount Jerome: A Victorian Cemetery. Staybro Printing Ltd., Dublin 1997.
  4. ^ Boylan, Henry (1998). A Dictionary of Irish Biography, 3rd Edition. Dublin: Gill and MacMillan. ISBN 0-7171-2945-4.
  5. ^ a b c d e Patao, Sofia (2000). Funeral Art and Architecture. Dublin: EEC. ISBN 84-8156-270-X.
  6. ^ Reporter (20 October 1970), "Obituary", The Irish Times, p. 13
  7. ^ Irish Times, Dublin, 29 January 1880
  8. ^ St. Peter's Churchyard Excavation Report

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mount_Jerome_Cemetery_and_Crematorium&oldid=389884971"