The Glasnevin Cemetery

The Glasnevin Cemetery is big, but relatively new compared to many other things in Dublin. It opened in the 1830s, and it’s still a working cemetery – so people are still interred there and if you’re walking around there’s a chance there might actually be a funeral going on, or people actively grieving at a gravesite.

At the same time, it’s right next to the Botanic Garden, and it has a lot of open, sunny paths there, so it seemed like half the people I passed were clergy walking with mourners, or … joggers. Oh, and a few older men walking their dogs. I felt like the only person there just taking pictures of things. But take pictures I did!

Mostly, I was there for the Celtic knotwork. My cable-loving knitters will understand. I first saw statues/monuments like this when I went to the cemetery in Glasgow. I only took a few pictures, and for years, have wished that I’d taken more because after I got home and was looking through them, I started comparing them to the cables I loved to knit and saw so many similarities. I wanted more for reference comparison! And there’s just something about going and taking pictures of the ones that really speak to you, rather than doing a Google Image search. So I took a number of pictures like the one above.

And the carvings. I find the carvings and the statuary to be incredibly inspiring. To think about how people used to have to make things like this with water and a chisel? And I have things like sprig molds and textured rollers to make my things? It seems unfair, almost, haha. So I love to look at how things are put together, what goes with what, and how things look put together they way the are — as in, what grabs my attention? Why does it grab me? Do I want to make something with a similar look or vibe? If I did, how could I take the inspiration from this but make it mine?

And of course, I also like to walk around and look at names, and dates people were born and died. And if anything was written about them. One thing I noticed about a lot – A LOT – of these headstones, which I found fascinating but ultimately decided not to photograph for a reason that will become immediately apparent… many of the headstones had names, dates, and the addresses of the person who died. The address? Really? WHY. WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT. I mean, I can understand, maybe, from a very very very small village kind of way, so people could swing by and offer condolences. But putting the address of the survivors, the bereaved, RIGHT THERE? That just seems …. ripe for disaster. Want to try to take advantage of a widow/widower? Or a grieving family? Their address is right there!

I do plan to research this, but it’s a little past 11 at night as I’m writing this, and I’m very, very ready to go to sleep. So tonight will not be research night. But my gosh, I hope I can find the answer!

Anyway. I walked around, watching groundskeepers and clergy and crying people and old men with dogs and joggers, and I took pictures, and I marveled at the history and also the care that was taken to keep the cemetery so pristine. There are many notable graves there, so I gather that researchers or people interested in history must go there a lot.

If you also love stonework and cemeteries, and want to look at the rest of the pictures I took, you can find them here.

PS.

You can’t fool me, there’s no way I’m going down those creepy, steep, uneven stairs to take a peek in that crypt. Even with the pretty flowers on the ground. I’ve read that book, it doesn’t end well!