Dead Famous

Glasnevin Cemetery came into being when national hero Daniel O Connell, in a time of religious oppression, demanded the opening of a burial ground in which both Catholics and Protestants could lay their dead to rest. He said, in fact, it should be for people of all religions and none. The cemetery was opened in 1832 and the very first burial there was eleven-year-old Michael Careywho had died of tuberculosis, a disease that ravaged the people at the time and for which there was no known cure. From the day of his burial to now, over 1.5 million people from all walks of life have been laid to rest in Glasnevin -revolutionaries, politicians, poets, heroes, railway engineers, soldiers, singers, babies and one 112-year-old. There is no more interesting or moving place in Dublin, and there are many fascinating stories to be unearthed about the extraordinary lives of the people buried there.