It’s a place I visit on a regular basis because my entire birth family are up there, they have a beautiful view. I’ve never strayed far beyond my family’s plot. I go up there to talk to my brother, sister and Da. The mammy is a whole different post in a different sub but, anyway.
This particular graveyard has quite a large number of relocated folk. The original graveyard would have been where the Blessington lakes are now. It’s not a natural lake. It was created to provide water as the country progressed. The land was sized by compulsory sale and people were forcibly removed as the water came to their knees in their homes.
The graveyard was relocated to a field donated by a farmer and the removal of the remains commenced. There’s a story of a young girl whose coffin broke when the lifted it and she was still the same as the day she was buried. Word spread about the girl that must be a saint. The graveyard was on boggy ground and the bog water had preserved the body.
I’m a regular visitor since ‘13 when my younger brother died (fuck cancer). Got more regular as the rest of them passed but, I never strayed further than my family plot. Yesterday I did and it’s beautiful and deeply moving walking through the first burials. Some are nothing more than a deliberately placed lump of granite. Some are so badly weathered that you can see there was an engraving at some time in history but can’t make out. There is a few that I recognise the surname from the parish and people are still placing flowers for family the could have never known.