Matthew Potter 2014

Limerick City Archives, Republic of Ireland

Funerary art in an Irish Cemetery, 1855-2014

Mount Saint Lawrence, Limerick is the fifth largest cemetery in the Republic of Ireland with an area of eighteen acres and a total of 75,000 burials. It contains some 10,750 grave-markers, ranging from huge Celtic crosses to tiny iron crosses. This paper will present the findings of a survey conducted of the grave-markers in Mount Saint Lawrence. It will examine them according to typology, style, material and location within the Cemetery. Also examined will be the mortuary chapel and the two public monuments housed within the Cemetery. Finally, it will examine some iconographic elements indicative of specific Irish and Catholic provenance and make some comparison with older Protestant burial grounds in Limerick City.

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