Founded by Daniel O'Connell, Glasnevin Cemetery opened its gates to the dead in 1832, five years before the reign of Victoria began. Its origins lay in the campaign for Catholic Emancipation which was achieved in 1829.
As a result of the Reformation and the seizure of the Catholic church's land and properties, Catholics were forced to bury their dead in Protestant cemeteries and to pay Protestant ministers burial fees. O'Connell, recognising the need for a cemetery where Catholics could bury their dead free from religious interference, set about finding suitable land.
In 1828, land was purchased in Kilmainham and the first burial took place in Goldenbridge Cemetery in October. The expanding population of Dublin meant further land was soon required and, in 1831, more land was bought by the Catholic Association in Glasnevin. The new burial ground was named Prospect Cemetery but soon became widely known as Glasnevin Cemetery.
Nineteenth-century Catholic Ireland, which was gradually shaped by the twin forces of a reinvigorated Catholic hierarchy and the nationalism of the Young Irelanders, the Fenians and the Home Rule movement, left its mark upon Glasnevin in the shape of the evolving iconography of the time.
The Round Tower above O'Connell's tomb is, unsurprisingly, Ireland's tallest burial monument. It dominates Glas nevin. The triumphalism of the newly confident Catholic Ireland (the Church of Ireland was disestablished the same year as O'Connell's remains were moved from his old grave to the tomb beneath the tower in 1869) is evidenced by its astonishing height.
An interesting point is that the rituals of death were far more important to many Catholics than lasting monuments to the memory of the dead. Irish nationalists, realising this, turned the graveside oration into an art form.
The avowed purpose of the book is to explore the social, cultural and political climate of Victorian Dublin and to examine what motivations were behind its inhabitants' choice of grave memorials. It is certainly an ambitious undertaking which evolved, as the author readily admits, from far simpler aims.
As part of the Glasnevin Heritage Project which is attempting to raise awareness of the architectural heritage enshrined in Glasnevin as well as Victorian architecture and design in Dublin generally, the book is to be commended. The haunting use of black and white photographs captures superbly the preoccupations of Victorians in commemorating their dead, from design to superstitious belief. The power which symbols have in death as well as life is all too frightening.
Where the book fails is in its approach. Thematically muddled, the book, as an overview of Victorian attitudes, Catholic and Protestant, Irish and English, followed by a study of the aesthetic of Glasnevin, fails to realise its aims. The excellent photographs bear no instant relation to the rambling text, and the overused subheadings are unhelpful.
This is no social history of the people who worked or are buried in Glasnevin Cemetery in the Victorian era. A pity, for this was, one would suspect, an excellent starting point.
Timothy Fanning is a freelance journalist