TV: Spotlight on Cork cemetery founded by Fr Mathew

Almost 200 years ago, Cork temperance campaigner and priest, Fr Theobald Mathew, founded a new burial place in the city for the poorest souls of the community.

St Joseph’s Cemetery in Ballyphehane was set up in 1830 after he leased land from the Botanical Gardens, and was extended 50 years later, by which time Fr Mathew himself had been lain to rest there.

The historic cemetery contains victims of the famine and the two world wars, and is featured in Nationwide on RTÉ1 on Friday at 7pm.

The episode also features another cemetery which opened in the 1830s, and which was founded by a leading Catholic figure of his day.

Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin owes its origins to Daniel O’Connell, and was also founded to ensure the poor had access to affordable burial grounds.

The guided tours of Glasnevin Cemetery have become a popular tourist attraction in recent years, but we hear how some of the most fascinating stories are in the older, less visited part of the cemetery, beside the Gravediggers pub, whose history is intertwined with that of the cemetery.

Nationwide next week also devoted its episodes on Monday and Wednesday to the National Ploughing Championships at Screggan, Tullamore in County Offaly.

On Monday, presenter Bláthnaid Ní Chofaigh visits the site ahead of the crowds as the final preparations are put in place to ensure the smooth running of the largest gathering of its type in the country.

The team also meets a young Galway woman who has ambitious plans for a career in agriculture. Katie Larkin combines life on the family farm with content creation, and does all this while pursuing her dream of becoming a vet.

In Wednesday’s episode of Nationwide, Bláthnaid Ní Chofaigh and Richard Downes meet some of the many visitors and exhibitors at the event, as well as the skilled men and women who will compete there..