Longstanding issue over lack of burial plots at Abbeyfeale cemetery is laid to rest

LONGSTANDING issues in Abbeyfeale over dwindling burial space at Reilig Íde Naofa cemetery have finally been laid to rest with the Council’s approval of a Part 8 for the development of a new graveyard. Members of Newcastle West Municipal District recently held a special meeting to discuss the proposal of a new burial ground and […]

LONGSTANDING issues in Abbeyfeale over dwindling burial space at Reilig Íde Naofa cemetery have finally been laid to rest with the Council’s approval of a Part 8 for the development of a new graveyard.

Members of Newcastle West Municipal District recently held a special meeting to discuss the proposal of a new burial ground and car park at Knockbrack on the outskirts of the West Limerick market town. It is envisaged that the two-hectare site, near the NCT centre, will consist of 1600 burial plots and a columbarium wall, consisting of 350 niches designed to hold cremation urns.

The development will also consist of proposed traffic calming measures and signage on the R524, as well as the provision of a carpark to serve the existing Greenway and burial ground.

According to the local authority, the Knockbrack site has been designed as a parkland landscape setting that will provide a high-quality civic and community amenity while also fulfilling an important burial function for Abbeyfeale and its hinterland.

The burial ground will be arranged within a secure enclosed area and comprise of a structured network of internal paths which define a series of burial sectors. Semi-mature tree planting is proposed at the corners of each sector – accommodating between 100 and 200 graves – creating a strong landscape framework and reinforcing the parkland character of the development.

A Remembrance Garden is also proposed within an elevated portion of the site to provide a contemplative space for visitors. This has been designed to align visually with the civic plaza associated with the permitted Greenway Hub development.

Councillors in Newcastle West Municipal District have been consistently raising the issue of the need for a new burial site in Abbeyfeale for well over a decade. With the Reilig Íde Naofa cemetery on Hill Road, which was first opened in 1962, long nearing capacity, this issue has often been deemed by local representatives as a “crisis waiting to happen”.

Still referred to locally as ‘the new graveyard’, the five-acre Reilig Íde Naofa cemetery, with an estimated 2,500 plots, can now rest easy with the Part 8 for a new burial ground agreed upon by the Council. And elected representatives too breathed a sigh of relief at their recent special meeting as they welcomed this long-awaited advancement.

After the meeting, the Limerick Post met with two native Abbeyfeale councillors out in their old haunt of Reilig Íde Naofa cemetery, with their spirits clearly lifted by this latest development.

“This has been going on a long long time. There was a lot of controversy over it and the selection of the site was the biggest problem. We did trial run after trial run on site after site. This has to be welcomed,” Cathaoirleach of the district, Cllr Liam Galvin told me.

“This is another great news story for Abbeyfeale. We’re after getting a few good projects. We have Irish Water in town currently. We have the new public toilet, the new town carpark and this is going on now a number of years. Cllr Foley and I have been raising the need for a new graveyard. We’re very close to capacity. There are individual graves but we’re close to full. Thankfully, we now have a new site identified and there’s been a lot of work and a lot of money being spent on it.

“In fairness to James Hartnett, our local undertaker, he was the man that really put the pressure on us to make sure we had the space and I have to acknowledge that.(he said) Guys, unless we have a graveyard, we’re not going to stack them at the side of the street, so it’s all about getting the resources,” the Fine Gael man opined.

Cllr Francis Foley has been long highlighting the need for a new burial ground in his hometown and he praised council staff for bringing the development to this juncture. The Fianna Fail man proposed the Part 8 for the new Knockbrack cemetery, deeming it great news for Abbeyfeale “after years of percolation tests”.

“We’ve had lots of representations over the years. This won’t happen overnight but I welcome the approval of a Part 8, which I was delighted to propose. I think the reflection area is going to be very important to welcome people coming into the graveyard. It will give them a chance to sit down and spend some time there,” Cllr Foley commented.

As far back as 2017, this reporter met with the former Limerick Mayor, where we now stand at Reilig Íde Naofa, after details of a number of potential sites had been submitted to the Council.

It has proven a thankless task for both local authority staff and elected members in recent years to find the right site. Various ground tests at numerous locations failed strict ground and water level tests.

This was then escalated by the shortage of space in the town’s burial ground, in its picturesque hilltop setting. Percolation tests proved a huge issue with a lot of the sites that were looked at, making this latest development all the sweeter for local representatives and Council alike.

“The new site is out the Athea Road. It’s just on the other side of the town on the Railway Road. It’s in close proximity to the NCT Centre and the Mart is down there. There’s lighting, footpaths and all, going down there. We looked at a number of sites down through the years, and I proposed a site next to this graveyard here, where we are today, around 18 years ago. It came up for sale, and unfortunately, it wasn’t suitable, and it didn’t pass the percolation test. It would have been ideal to extend from here but it wasn’t to be,” Cllr Foley recalls.

“It’s taken us a long time to get to where we are with the Part 8 for planning but we have a proper site now and we’re progressing. It’s a good news story for Abbeyfeale. There has been a lot of pressure put on us by a lot of people for the provision of a new burial ground. It’s the one thing everybody likes to have their own plot sorted out, especially as they get older. It’s very very welcome.

“The committee here in the graveyard do fantastic work. They do fantastic work with drainage, general maintenance, new footpaths, and they’ve built new walls as well. We’re up in the hills here, so the water runs down, that’s why it took so much time to find the right site.

“One of the things I’m most impressed with at the new burial ground is there’s going to be a decent carpark and there’s also going to be a reflection area where people can sit down and get a view into the town when they are visiting their loved ones. The fact the new site is walking distance to the town is a big plus as well. It’s not a million miles away,” he concluded.