| glasnevin cemetery |
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| Written by i j |
| Friday, 10 December 2010 17:30 |
It has been a really busy Week, but here I’m back and today we talk about a place that I owe you since I wrote the Gothic tourism in Dublin Article…
You already know that when I wrote that article I thought that this place deserved its own article, I’m pretty sure that when we end talking about this, you will agree with me.
Glasnevin cemetery is the largest graveyard in Ireland, it’s located at the north side of the Dublin city and you can get there using the 19 and 19A buses (one leave us at the cemetery gates and the other will leave you at about 300 meters), you can pick both at O`connel street.
Another option is to pick 40 or 40A buses that will leave us at the gate of the cemetery and you can pick them at Parnell street.
Once you get there you are free to go into cemetery which it’s free of charge… the first thing that you are going to notice is that this place is really beautiful.
The second thing that you will notice is a huge tower that was used as the bell tower a lot of years ago, recently it’s unused although would be great to let visitors to take a view from there,
To the left you will see a few elaborated tombs and a small church.
But you will find the interesting stuff in this place when you start to wonder around… the fact is that when they say that this cemetery is the biggest of Ireland they are not lying… it’s possible to find yourself somewhere near the middle of the cemetery and it doesn’t matter where you look the only thing that you see it’s… exactly that, a cemetery until the sight allow you to see…
In the Spanish website I once talked about that everyone should have a place for thinking and relaxing… I’ll probably get that article here some day… anyway, If I lived in Dublin without doubt this was going to be that special gothic place for me…
I would come here in my bicycle with the only company of a great book and a black rose, for reading in a sunny afternoon surrounded by forgotten souls and when it’s time to depart, leaving the black rose behind as a payment for the great company…
Apart from the relax that distillates this place, it also have other characteristics tat makes it specifically unique, starting from the fact that being so big it’s possible to find a great variety of tombs and structures… some of them are really beautiful tombs.
There was another thing that I loved… I’m not sure if it was for the difficult to take care of such big extension or if it was cause of the lack or money, but the fact is that some areas were slightly neglected and nature had started to do it’s job… while it could seem a bad thing, the fact is that it created some spectacular sights…
But not everything could be good news for this place… the bad thing it’s that it’s located in Dublin and is considered a touristic attraction.
What that means? It’s full of tourists being a pain in the ass? (like myself) well, not really, the problem is that as being a touristic attraction it’s provided with a bar and a shop of modern looking that completely destroy the local ambient of the place.
There you can find from a set of “tomb cleaning tools” to publicity of what to do with your non birth child… I agree that there must be some kind of solution for those fathers that lose their child while they are still not birth but… I would bet that a advertising sheet it’s not the best way for letting people know that this option exists…
There is another bad new, and it’s that being a touristic spot, central government invest money in restoring the area… That’s bad? You would ask… not necessarily if it wasn’t for those funny blue notes that they leave in every restored tomb (they look awesome in photos).
A last note for those whose mother language is not English: Here I discovered the difference in the words “Graveyard” and “Cemetery” which in Spain have the same meaning.
Correct me if I’m wrong but it seems that for Irish people a cemetery is always located in sacred ground of any religion, and only people that commune with that religion is allowed to be buried there.
In the opposing side, a graveyard is located in public ground and there could be buried people from any religion or without any religion at all, in Ireland it’s not possible to consecrate any tomb in a public graveyard even if you want to do so.
I don’t have more things to tell you so I’m going to leave you with a few photos that I took during the trip… hope you enjoy them as much as I do…
I have even more photos… yeah I likes this place a lot… but it seemed like an exaggeration to publish more, If you want even more photos, just let me know.
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| Last Updated on Friday, 10 December 2010 17:52 |
