The first phase of a €25 million restoration and improvement works at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin has got under way this week at the oldest sections of the 175-year-old site.
The 10-year restoration plan for the cemetery was announced in March and is expected to be completed in time for the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising.
The cemetery is the resting place of more than 1.2 million people, including figures such as Daniel O'Connell, Éamon de Valera and Charles Stewart Parnell. The first phase of the restoration works, which will last until the end of July at least, will see a clean-up of graves and their surroundings.
It will involve the removal from graves of litter, shrubs, damaged and broken headstones, rusted grave surrounds, decayed personal mementoes and tree stumps.
The cemetery's archive records will be updated as the work is carried out, with digital photographs taken of every grave before and after the clean-up.
Glasnevin Cemeteries Group has asked that families assist by helping to tidy their loved ones' graves and arranging any repairs to monuments or kerbs. It says that mementoes, railings or kerbings that do no comply with cemetery bylaws should be removed.
It also asks that any iron, metal or wooden crosses or structures of any kind on the grave surface be removed.
The work is being carried out by the Dublin Cemeteries Committee in conjunction with the Office of Public Works.
The second phase will involve the restoration and conservation of the main protected structures at the cemetery.
Anyone with queries regarding the work are asked to contact (01) 830 1133 or info@glasnevin-cemetery.ie