Goldenbridge Cemetery is Ireland’s first garden cemetery and was founded by ‘the Liberator’ Daniel O’Connell almost 200 years ago.
The cemetery has unique history and many stories including vaults, armed guards, the Cuban bloodhounds, the body snatchers, and the people buried in the historically significant and interesting graves within its walls.
There are also stories about the Massey Brother Funeral Homes originally being a butchers, until they began freezing bodies and eventually became a funeral director company.
In the cemetery, there’s two former taoisigh buried next to one another, rugby legend Andrew Clinch – a doctor and rugby player for Ireland, the British Lions and former President of the IRFU – is also buried there and 8-year-old Eugene Lynch, killed in 1916.
Among the gravestones, there are many tales, some inspiring, some tragic, and some spooky.
“The Montreal Chapel looks like a chapel and looks inviting where you can go in there to say a few prayers, but it does have a hidden aspect to it,” Niall Glennon, a tour guide in Richmond Barracks explained.
“It actually had a garrison of soldiers in it, there was a guard room in it, there were weapons in it. It was like a fortress when the cemetery was closed. They also had dogs in it, Cuban bloodhounds, which were actually bred especially to run down escaped slaves in South America. They were a particularly vicious dog. They were fairly good at running down people that were in an area they shouldn’t be.
“Body snatching happened at nighttime, the dead of night, people would come in and they would try and get bodies or for medical research because prior to 1832, body snatching or ‘sack em ups’ was a big, big industry in Ireland.
“Medical schools were really only entitled to between six and maybe 10 remains a year because they would only get those from executions. So, it depended on how many executions there were. Then there was a fierce rivalry between schools. So even at times, the convict would be dragged off before he was dead.
“In 1822 The Anatomy Act came about and gave medical schools the right to obtain remains from hospitals, workhouses, prisons of dead remains that are unclaimed with their families after 48 hours.
“But prior to that it was a big industry Ireland was a big exporter of remains. They used to export the remains in whiskey barrels. The cost for a body would be anything from 10 shilling, or if they were shipping them off to London or Paris, they could get up to £45 per body.
“In Goldenbridge, some of the graves have boulders. If you tried to dig into it, the bottom would fall on you, they were held up like a table. You had to put these protective measures in place.
“You had the likes of Scotland too where the body snatchers turned into serial killers. They killed 16 people for the purposes of medical research. At one point they were body snatching, but then they started killing people.”
Mr Glennon also explained that he has had a big interest in history which “was probably awakened when I was around about 9 in 1964.”
“Kilmainham Jail put out a call for craftsmen and workmen to get ready for the 50th anniversary 1966 and my dad used to bring me up there,” he added.
“Joe Duffy was involved with Eugene Lynch and the whole idea of getting his grave marked actually. There was a marker put on the grave by a local school children. But Joe Duffy heard about this, and he brought about getting a proper gravestone on it.
“All of the people from the Lynch family are all named on that gravestone, but also incorporated in that gravestone is the little slate gravestone that the children of the primary school used for Eugene. He was one of the children mentioned in his book about the children in the 1916 Rising.
“Mary Ann Jenkin was involved in the 1916 Rising and she’s buried in Goldenbridge too. She was involved in the South Dublin Union. She carried messages and carried guns and then she got involved in the War of Independence.
“Even after the War of Independence, after the Civil War, she took the anti-treaty side, and she was imprisoned in Kilmainham Jail.
“She went on hunger strike, she was imprisoned with 70 other women and because of the atrocious conditions, she went on hunger strike and died at a very young age, at 39, so it had a detrimental effect on her health, a fantastic woman who will always be remembered.”
