Restoration at Glasnevin
Office of Public Works
Ten years before 1916, the Dublin Cemeteries Committee issued a book of bye laws for Glasnevin Cemetery, illustrated by an impressive array of black and white photographs showing what the cemetery looked like at the time – a fine Victorian-style garden cemetery with manicured grass and carefully cobbled paths flanked by well-pruned hedges. Being a not for profit organisation and registered as a charity, the Committee was not able to maintain the grounds to the same standard during the century that followed.
Only a year younger than the Office of Public Works, the cemetery came into being under the aegis of Daniel O’Connell, whose remains (minus his heart which he donated to Rome) repose in the vault of the Round Tower. In June 2006, the Cemeteries Committee petitioned the former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern to provide funding so that the cemetery would be a prime tourist attraction but also a centre of national pride where the centenary of the Rising could be suitably celebrated in 2016.
The government duly obliged by including the cemetery in the National Development Plan as an Office of Public Works project. The Office of Public Works is making an important contribution towards restoring this great necropolis to its pristine glory of the early 1900s and the results are very much beginning to show.
The general public may see little of the valuable work done to date to improve the century-old drains, yet the man-holes sunk into them will greatly help their maintenance during the present century – and beyond. But much more vivid to the naked eye are the startling improvements made in recent months to the trees and monuments of the cemetery, thereby enhancing it sufficiently to provide our first initial vision of what the whole cemetery will look like when completed in 2016.
Restoration at Glasnevin
Style
Some of the cemetery’s great trees go back to the nineteenth century and still offer shady sylvan strolls particularly near the original entrance from Prospect Square at the eastern end of the cemetery. Part of the ongoing work has been to remove many of their lower branches in order to provide better visibility for mourners and tourists alike. It is also remarkable how the removal of ivy from the tree-trunks and monuments changes the aspect from a Rip-van-Winkle jungle of neglect to a friendly forest feeling where the trees are seen to add dignity and height to a well-wooded landscape. This goes not only for the yews which contribute to the melancholy atmosphere, but also to the noble beeches which are such a feature of the place.
Recent OPW assisted restoration work has managed in a short space of time to change the eastern end of the Cemetery from something of an untamed wilderness to a must see attraction, particularly among the tall limestone monuments, including the Monaghan Chapel, which are now revealed as the venerable memorials they were designed to be when erected a century and a half ago by the affluent citizens of Dublin. Old railings which enclosed some of these monuments have also have recently been replaced in an ancient style which will doubtless earn many plaudits from conservationists in the years to come.
Restoration at Glasnevin
The Round Tower
The opening up of the Finglas Road in the mid-nineteenth century gave the Cemeteries Committee the opportunity to create a new axis of orientation for the Cemetery, with the creation of the present gates (on which Padraig Pearse’s father worked) providing a whole new entrance giving onto the O’Connell Tower and a much larger chapel. The restoration work has brought pulsating new life to this area, not only by re-locating the beautiful Sigerson memorial honouring the dead of 1916 and placing it dramatically to the left of the entrance, but also by landscaping and lighting the foot of the Round Tower to show off for the first time in many years the superb masonry of its base.
Restoration at Glasnevin
Monuments
Equally striking is the way in which many of the monuments close to the O’Connell Tower have been cleaned to reveal the fine-quality craftsmanship seen, for instance, in the Meade monument topped by the archangel Michael, the Sir Thomas Farrell statue of the actor Barry Sullivan playing the role of Hamlet, and the beautiful Boland chapel which had suffered so unhappily from vandalism.
To paraphrase the now-famous political slogan, much has already been done, but even more remains to do. Some of the headstones which had been sloping or even falling, have been placed upright and provided with new foundations to prevent a re-occurrence. But this is a mere drop in the ocean compared to the total number of old tombstones which require similar attention. The praiseworthy grassing begun at the eastern end will have to continue westwards. The important Chapel, The Church of the Resurrection – a rare Romanesque essay among the Gothic output of the famous Victorian architect J.J McCarthy – is in serious need of repair, particularly the roof which has caused dampness that urgently needs eradication. The O’Connell Tower itself is in need of conservation, as is the one surviving gate lodge and its attendant structures. The resurfacing of the eight kilometres of paths, already begun, will have to be intensified to face further centuries of use, and the railings along the perimeter wall, together with the interspersed watch towers built to counteract body-snatching, will need much care and attention if they are to survive and impress all the passers-by.
