Famine graveyard in Cork could become national visitor destination
Carrs Hill is known to many in Cork as “the pauper’s graveyard” and the cemetery was in use as a burial ground up until at least the 1950s, becoming the final resting place for around 30,000 souls.
The Lord Mayor of Cork, Councillor Deirdre Forde, has visited the All Saints Cemetery at Carrs Hill, to mark an agreement reached between Cork City Council and the HSE to enable the local authority take ownership of the Famine graveyard.
All Saints Cemetery was used as a burial ground for victims of the Great Famine and thousands of Cork people who died during the Famine are buried at Carrs Hill.
In the months of February to June 1847, 2,260 Famine victims from the workhouse on Douglas Road (now St Finbarr’s Hospital) were laid to rest in these grounds.
Carrs Hill is known to many in Cork as “the pauper’s graveyard” and the cemetery was in use as a burial ground up until at least the 1950s, becoming the final resting place for around 30,000 souls.
All Saints Cemetery is a national monument and an annual commemoration ceremony is held in the cemetery in September of each year.
Cllr Forde said the agreement marked an opportunity to remember all who had died in An Gorta Mór, the Great Famine.
“I look forward to seeing the plans for maintaining, interpreting and honouring this significant site in our history,” she said.
In 1958, a cross was erected at the graveyard by Jack Sorensen, a taxi driver in Cork, to honour the Famine dead.
Mr Sorenson passed away in 1979 but he is remembered through a memorial carrying his name at the foot of the cross.
In 1997, the US Ambassador to Ireland, Jean Kennedy Smith, marked the 150th anniversary of the Famine in Ireland by unveiling a memorial at All Saints Cemetery.
Independent councillor Kieran McCarthy welcomed the takeover of ownership of the cemetery by Cork City Council, describing it as a historic and important graveyard in Cork and Ireland’s history.
“The graveyard’s history goes back to 1847. As St Joseph’s graveyard could not cope with the increase in burials during the Great Famine, Fr Mathew suggested to the Cork Union workhouse guardians that a new burial ground should be acquired,” Cllr McCarthy said.
“As a result, land was attained from George Carr, a workhouse official on the road between Douglas and Carrigaline. Thousands of poor men, women, and children are buried there with no headstone.
"It’s a historically sensitive area which needs TLC,” he added.
Arising from the handover of All Saints Famine Cemetery to the council, independent councillor Mick Finn has submitted a motion to council that a heritage development plan be commenced, with funding sought from various sources, to develop the site as a national visitor destination and reflective space for locals and tourists alike.
Cllr Finn’s proposal includes a recommendation of a refurbishment of the cross on the site and the addition of interpretation panels with linkages to the burial site at St Joseph's Cemetery.
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