Fri 02 Oct 09: Angel Remembrance Garden - Plan Outline
Map Keys:
1) Existing large trees to be retained - 2) Dedicated Area for Plaques and Hearts (under tree) - 3) Existing Grave Stones - 4) Ornamental rose beds - 5) Feature timber seats - 6) Sculptral Element - Angel Statue
For Angels Remembrance Garden FAQs, click here ...
For over 170 years, Glasnevin Cemetery has provided a burial place, on consecrated and shared ground, for stillborn and other babies and infants. This burial place is called the Angels’ Plot. The cemetery is one of very few that provides this service. Over the decades, tens of thousands of burials have taken place with each grave shared by many families.
The practice of some families marking shared graves with personal memorials to their babies is a cause of significant upset to the other families whose babies are buried in the same graves. The hundreds of memorials that vie with each other for limited space do not facilitate the maintenance of a dignified resting place where families can reflect knowing that their child’s grave receives the same high level of dignity that other burials receive.
In June 2005 the older part of this burial area, the Old Holy Angels’ Plot, was rededicated following renovation as a remembrance garden, in an Ecumenical Ceremony attended by Her Excellency, the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese and 10,000 family members. This part of the Angels’ plot is now maintained as a lawned garden, without individual memorials and is surrounded by landscaping and seating for personal reflection. The shared headstones surrounding the plot record the names of thousands of babies buried there.
The Cemetery, in association with the Irish Stillbirth & Neonatal Death Society (ISANDS), is now arranging for the new Angels’ Plot to be similarly rendered as a remembrance garden so that the plot can be maintained in a dignified way where all burials are accorded the same respectful treatment and each burial is inscribed on shared headstones. This work will be expertly and sensitively undertaken without disturbance to the existing graves.
The work on the new remembrance garden will commence on Monday the 12th of October 2009. The Cemetery politely requests thatfamilies remove their memorials and personal effects from the Angels’ Plot before then.
If it is not possible to do so in this time then the Cemetery will put these effects into safe keeping and families will be able to collect their mementoes prior to the end of the December 2009, when any remaining effects will be discreetly disposed of on the Cemetery’s grounds.
If families wish to discuss any aspect of the new Remembrance Garden or learn how they can memorialise their loved one through the dedication of rosebushes in the garden this information can be found on www.glasnevintrust.ie or by email (info@glasnevintrust.ie) or by phoning 01-8826500 from Monday to Friday between 9:30am and 5pm and on Saturdays between 9:30am and 1pm.
If families are distressed by any aspect of this development then please phone Ron Smith-Murphy,
National Chairperson of ISANDS at 01-872 6996.
A map of the new plans is also available on www.isands.ie
Available for download: 
Angels Remembrance Garden Map (261 KB)
Video of Old Angel Plot renovation at Glasnevin Cemeteries www.youtube.com/watch