Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin

Glasnevin Cemetery is an active burial ground and cremation site, spread across about 124 acres and holding more than 1.5 million burials. The high enclosing walls and watchtowers give the grounds a strong, fortified character. At the heart of the cemetery, the landmark O’Connell Tower rises above the graves.

It contains Daniel O’Connell’s crypt, after his remains were moved there when the tower was completed in 1869. O’Connell established this non-denominational cemetery in 1832, creating a place where Catholics and Protestants could receive dignified burial. The cemetery’s historical depth is immense: Daniel O’Connell, Charles Stewart Parnell, Michael Collins, Éamon de Valera and Constance Markievicz are among those buried here.

Michael Collins’s grave is especially well visited, with a memorial recording the names of at least 183 soldiers buried around him. The cemetery also includes the Angels Plot, where stillborn babies were allowed burial in consecrated ground. During the Irish revolutionary period, Patrick Pearse delivered the graveside oration for Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa here; that speech helped prepare the way for the Easter Rising. Glasnevin remains a place of burial, remembrance and living history, with guided tours and a museum adding context to the stones around you.