Dead Famous

Glasnevin Cemetery came into being when national hero Daniel O Connell, in a time of religious oppression, demanded the opening of a burial ground in which both Catholics and Protestants could lay their dead to rest. He said, in fact, it should be for people of all religions and none.\r\n\r\nThe cemetery was opened in 1832 and the very first burial there was eleven-year-old Michael Carey who had died from tuberculosis, a disease that ravaged the people at the time and for which there was no known cure.\r\n\r\nFrom the day of his burial to now, over 1.5 million people from all walks of life have been laid to rest in Glasnevin - revolutionaries, politicians, poets, heroes, railway engineers, soldiers, singers, babies and one 112-year-old!\r\n\r\nThere is no more interesting or moving place in Dublin, and there are many fascinating stories to be unearthed about the extraordinary lives of the people buried there.\r\n\r\nIn this book we look at some of those people who reach out to us from the past - our past.\r\n\r\n