Pictures: New season of historical tours launched at Cork city cemetery

THE Lord Mayor of Cork recently launched a new season of historical tours of one of the city’s most significant cemeteries and has unveiled a new leaflet highlighting some of the people laid to rest there.

Independent councillor Kieran McCarthy said he had been honoured to be asked to launch this year’s series of monthly tours of St Joseph’s Cemetery in Turner’s Cross.

Local historians Liam Ó hUigín and Finbarr Barry give free guided tours of the cemetery during the summer months, a role they inherited from their friend Ronnie Herlihy when he passed away.

The history of St Joseph’s dates back almost two centuries, to January 1830, when temperance priest Fr Theobald Mathew negotiated with the Royal Cork Institute, at his own expense, a 999-year lease on the former Botanic Gardens, which had fallen into decay.

He would later say: “The insults offered to Catholic priests who were often grossly outraged in Protestant churchyards, [and] the large fees demanded from the very poorest for the interment of their relatives, induced me to open my large and very beautiful burial ground”.

A month later, the Botanic Gardens were blessed and dedicated as St Joseph’s Cemetery.

Mr McCarthy, a keen historian himself, has written in the past about St Joseph’s, and he told The Echo that the tours by Mr Ó hUigín and Mr Barry have helped to tell the story of St Joseph’s to the city.

“Liam and Finbarr have taken over the mantle from Ronnie, and they have added to Ronnie’s work and they’ve come up with new tours of the graveyard.” 

He added that he was delighted the council has sponsored a new leaflet to accompany the tours.

“I’m always on the perspective that local historians are our guardians of local stories and neighborhood stories, they champion not just the history but the sense of place, the sense of identity of a space, they breathe life into the story of the cemetery and the people who are buried there,” Mr McCarthy said.

He praised the work of Cork City Council’s graveyard section, which operates under Stephen Scully, and Niamh Twomey, the council’s heritage officer.

“There is a heritage plan for the city and it is very much about learning and promoting our history and our heritage, but also about preserving and conserving.

“We can’t take everything forward into the future, but it’s about trying to take the best parts forward and have a discussion on where we’re going with the rest of our history and heritage.

As it approaches its bicentennial, the cemetery continues to provide “a safe space for people”, Mr McCarthy said.

“St Joseph’s Cemetery is a sanctuary for people, there are hundreds of thousands of people, a quarter of a million people, buried there, but also in our present day, it gives a lot of people solace that they can go to such a historic graveyard.

“It’s an interesting space with modern graves and older graves, and there are certainly parts of the graveyard that need more conservation, and need a conservation plan, and Cork City Council is getting there, we’re lucky to have good officials to champion that,” he said.

Free guided tours of St Joseph’s Cemetery begin at the main gates at 7pm on the first Wednesday of every month, until September.