Undertaker reveals scale of grave crisis

The lack of space in a number of South Connemara graveyards has seen footpaths dug up through burial grounds – so that the dead can be laid to rest.

It has also resulted in families having to build up existing graves above ground level to accommodate the interment of new remains.

All of that has increased pressure on Galway County Council to extend several graveyards in Connemara – given that some already full to capacity, forcing relatives to bury family members in a neighbouring parish.

Graveyards at Knock, Inverin, along with burial grounds in Leitir Moir and Lettermullen are close to capacity, with many of the plots yet to be used already been sold off to local families.

Local councillor and undertaker Cllr Padraig Mac An Iomaire said that the situation had reached crisis point in South Connemara with several families having to resort to burying their loved ones in cemeteries in adjoining parishes.

He is now meeting with Council officials to outline the difficulties that some families are facing when it comes to their relatives being laid to rest.

The Fine Gael councillor said that there were other graveyards in Connemara which would be facing shortages over the coming years and he wants the local authority to also take this into consideration.

He said that there seemed to be no problem when it came to graveyard extensions in the east of the county while families in Connemara faced uncertainty in this regard.

“We are now in a situation that there is little option but to dig up footpaths through existing graveyards to develop new plots while we are awaiting the Council to provide extensions,” he said.

“I have even come across a number of instances in which families have raised their family grave above ground level to accommodate additional remains. That is how desperate the situation is,” Cllr Mac An Iomaire added.

Last week, the Chief Executive Officer Jim Cullen announced the provision of an additional 400 plots as part of extensions to a number of cemeteries in the county.

He confirmed the delivery of additional double burial plots in Killimordaly Cemetery, Quansboro Cemetery in Killimor while Leenane Burial Ground in North Connemara was also included in this phase. But according to Cllr Mac An Iomaire, South Connemara has been ignored when it comes to the much-needed extension to a number of local graveyards.