'I’m doing this job nearly 30 years and I still get a lump in my throat': Parks department catering for the dead and living in Cork city

St Catherine’s cemetery in Kilcully is a peaceful, tranquil place, where more than 9,330 Corkonians have been laid to rest since it opened in 1981. Its many daily visitors call in to say a prayer or spend some time in remembrance of a loved one, or just to enjoy a walk in its peaceful surroundings.

It is one of 13 cemeteries maintained by Cork City Council’s Parks Department, and St Catherine’s four staff work almost every day of the year, trying to go unnoticed most of that time. The parks department employs a total of 28 people who work across its cemeteries.

On a bright Thursday morning in late August, The Echo meets the Parks Department’s Stephen Scully, and Jason Healy, cemetery supervisor at St Catherine’s. Mr Healy has worked for 29 years in cemeteries, 25 of those in St Catherine’s.

Mr Scully says the cemetery workers are held in very high esteem among their colleagues, and are recognised as doing a job that might not suit some.

“They’re providing a service for very traumatised people six days a week, and apart from Christmas Day and St Stephen’s Day, the two days in a row they get off, they are there for people all the time,” he says.

“We have extraordinary respect for the lads working across all 13 of the cemeteries we maintain, the professionalism they show while dealing with people going through trauma is just exceptional.”

Mr Healy says the staff feel a personal connection with the cemetery, and those who visit it. “We have both empathy and sympathy for people. We have family buried here ourselves, and we also have to contend with every scenario, you just have to take it as it comes.

“We try and blend in to the background,” he says. “But we often go in wearing high-viz and I reckon people never see us, we’re performing a function and people are swept along in their own grief.

“I’m doing this job nearly 30 years and I still get a lump in my throat.”

Mr Scully says that for every family, and every bereaved person, grief is a unique experience.

“You can be mourning an elderly person, or a baby, or a young person struck down early in life, for every family it’s unique, for every person, and it’s different, and the lads are so respectful.

“You might think that after a few years, they might be numb, or that empathy might wear off, but no, they hold onto that empathy.”

Because cemeteries tend to be peaceful, reflective places, they are often used as public parks where people go for walks, Mr Healy says.

“A lot of people do come out here, admiring the place and taking the time to reflect. We have local walkers, and local people that we know.”

Mr Scully adds that the cemetery gates are never locked, because people visit at different times of the day.

“Pedestrian access is maintained 24 hours a day, the gates are open all the time and people are welcome to visit the graves at whatever time suits them,” he says.

There are usually about 220 burials in St Catherine’s every year, with approximately 1,000 coffin burials across the city and about 250 ash burials, a practice which is increasing every year. There are an estimated 100,000 people buried in the 13 cemeteries the council maintains across the city.

Later the same morning, on the other side of the river, at the junction of Skehard Rd and the Well Rd, staff from the parks department are working at two magnificent floral displays.

Undisturbed by the humans around them, bumblebees are meandering between the displays, which are filled with pollinator-friendly plants, happy in their own work.

“Part of what the team does is they dig out the beds, they plant them, and they water them on a regular basis,” Mr Scully says.

One of the team, Martin Horgan, says it’s important to keep on top of the work.

“Keep it cut, keep it edged, keep it clean, and just make sure it’s at a high standard at all times.

“The two beds are planted in April, and they’ll be coming back out in mid-October, and they’ll be planted with winter bedding, so they will.”

His colleague Ger O’Sullivan says that part of their duties is to open and close the parks every day.

“There are different closing times, in the summer it goes up to 10pm and it goes down to 5pm during the winter, we mow the grass, we litter-pick, we strim the edges, we don’t use chemicals, so we use strimmers instead,” he says.

Every morning before a park is opened, playgrounds are inspected to make sure they’re safe for use.

Sometimes, there can be a problem with a playground at the weekends, Mr O’Sullivan adds, and the staff member will then call the relevant operative.

“That person mightn’t be on call, but he would go out anyway, and either fix the problem or close the playground, because they are very conscientious.”

That is done as much from a sense of pride as a sense of duty, he says, and that is something that the public might not always understand.

Does the public ever thank council workers for their work?

“Sometimes people are grateful that we do what we do, but most of the time we don’t get any comments,” he says.

The parks department works closely with local communities across the city, Mr Scully says, and that co-operation is appreciated by the workers.

“As with the cemetery crews, there is a strong sense of teamwork and bonding between the parks crews, and you can see the relationship between the staff.

“There’s a great work ethic here, and a great sense of pride in the work they do, and when people do pay compliments to the work the lads do, it does mean a lot,” he says.

“They work hard, and that work is very visible right across the city.”

The work of the parks department

The 110 men and women of Cork City Council’s parks department are responsible for more than 2,000 acres of parks and green spaces, 13 cemeteries, 24 playgrounds, 21 multi-user games areas, 14 outdoor gyms, hundreds of planters and floral displays, and a golf course.

During bad weather, they risk their own safety to keep the roads and streets clear of impediments, and, indirectly, they save lives by maintaining and inspecting every single day the more than 200 ring buoys dotted along the quays.

They even put up more than 60 Christmas trees in the city every winter.

The work of the parks department includes grass maintenance, planting, litter picking, and re-seeding.

Since 2022, the council has operated a no-spray policy, which means it does not use chemical herbicides for weed control, however, this does require picking weeds by hand. They plant and maintain more than 100 planters across the city centre, using pollinator-friendly flowers from May to September, and winter/spring bedding during the winter months adding colour to the city streetscape.

This year, parks workers installed hanging planters on the city centre bridges, and they also maintain floral displays, containing more than 6,600 plants, at major road junctions.

They open and close the city’s major parks each day, and in recent years, the Parks Department — as a biodiversity measure in line with the all-Ireland pollinator plan — has set aside 74 acres across several parks as no-mow areas. Those include areas of the Lee Fields, the Mahon walkway, Murphy’s Farm, the Glen Amenity Park, the Military Cemetery Park on Assumption Rd, Tramore Valley Park, the South Ring Rd median, and more.

They have worked with Green Spaces For Health to help establish community gardens within Clashduv Park in Togher, Murphy’s Farm in Bishopstown, Ballinlough Park, and Douglas Park, and they are working with Fairhill Community Association to establish a new community garden at the Fairfield, Fairhill.

They also provide allotments to the general public at Churchfield and at the Regional Park in Ballincollig, a measure which has proven extremely popular.

Last year, the city council adopted a tree strategy, with the aim to ensure that as many as 5,000 trees are planted each year, and this is run by the Parks Department.

It also manages amenities such as the Lough, where a bat-friendly low-lux light was recently installed over the outdoor gym, and a drinking water fountain will soon be opened by the playground.

They also maintain the Lee Fields, the new Marina Park and promenade, as well as all walkways, and they work closely with Tidy Towns groups from Douglas, Ballincollig, Togher, Ballyphehane, Mahon, Mayfield, Waterloo Renewal Group, Glanmire Community Association, and more.

Earlier this year, a new playground was installed at Kerry Pike, at a cost of €300,000, and the golf course mentioned earlier is Mahon Golf Course, of course.

Cork City Council’s Parks Department maintains more than 2,000 acres of green spaces, 13 cemeteries, 24 playgrounds, and a golf course.