I paid a flying visit (literally) to Dublin last weekend (Baldrick was unavailable due to his forthcoming audition for ‘Belgium’s Got Talent’) to visit the little known Grangegorman Military Cemetery in the north west of the city, and to fill some photographic holes left from my previous visit to the city nearly three years ago.
The cemetery is a fascinating place. Opened in 1876 for the burial of British service personnel and their families, there are 613 First World War graves here, alongside 12 Second World War graves, and a number of post-war burials. Many of the burials are men killed either during the 1916 Easter Rising or the War of Independence between 1919 and 1921. Others were wounded in France or Belgium and evacuated to Ireland (under British rule, remember, at the time) where they later died of their wounds. And there are the graves of men, many of whom were either going on, or returning from, leave, who died on 10th October 1918 when the R.M.S. Leinster was torpedoed in the Irish Sea. In time I shall post the full results of my Irish wanderings (yes, I know we aren’t in Flanders, but as you know by now, we do sometimes head elsewhere, and anyway it’s my site and I can go exactly where I like), but for the moment here’s a few photos of Grangegorman Military Cemetery to keep you going.
And a huge thank you to Ray Bateson, author and Irish cemetery expert, whom I bumped into on my visit and who very kindly gave me a personal tour of the cemetery before his official tour arrived. He has also offered to provide a limited number of tours for individuals or groups at no charge, so if any of you are heading over to Ireland and intend to visit Grangegorman, and you should, I highly recommend you take him up on his offer. Give me a shout and I will pass on your details. Much appreciated, Ray.
Bullet holes from the Easter Rising spatter the side of Fusiliers Arch in St. Stephens Green, Dublin.