Call for Cork cemeteries to have back-to-back headstones

Irish Independent

18-06-2025

The motion tabled by Mayor of the County of Cork, councillor Joe Carroll, focused on revising byelaws to allow gravestones to be erected back-to-back in cemeteries, particularly at the Kilfachtnabeg Cemetery in Glandore.
The motion referenced Byelaw K of the Conditions Governing the Erection of Headstones in Council Burial Grounds.
Byelaw K states that all new gravestones should be of the same orientation as existing gravestones in the cemetery.
If the byelaw was changed, it would be it easier for grave diggers to dig the final resting places for the dead. This is because more space would be available for small machinery such as diggers to get to the burial site, according to Fine Gael councillor for Bandon-Kinsale and funeral director John Michael Foley.
Cllr Foley said the byelaw change would allow for the better operation of cemeteries.
He suggested that people continue to be buried facing east, but that headstones be moved to the foot of the grave.
This way, headstones in double rows would face the footpath, making them easier to view and making it easier for machinery to access plots without damaging gravestones.
'What is suggested is the headstones go back-to-back so you are looking at the headstone from every path opposed to looking at the back of the headstone,' he said.
The funeral director said he did not have anything to gain from the byelaw being revised.
He said he attended a grave digging course, which was organised by Cork County Council, and it recommended that mechanical means to be used at 'all opportunities.'
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'I took two men and myself to a grave digging course run by Cork County Council where we were urged to use the mechanical means at all opportunities and it should be used all the time, but we can't use it in this cemetery,' he said.
'We need to change the byelaws if Cork County Council are running courses saying that you need to dig the grave with a machine, but yet we don't have the systems in place to get at the grave.
'We need to modernise.'
The Cllr went on to say that using machinery is a far safer way for grave diggers to do their job as it eliminates plenty of risks because, if you dig manually, 'you are going into effectively a trench that could collapse in on someone'.
Independent Ireland Cllr Daniel Sexton backed the proposals and mentioned that, by chance, Cllr Foley was looking after the burial of his uncle at the Glandore-based graveyard later this week.
'They say the Lord works in mysterious ways that I happen to be looking after the funeral of the uncle of Councillor Daniel Sexton, and it happens to be in the cemetery in Glandore and it happens to be a grave with a headstone on the wrong end,' Mr Foley replied.
'It is amazing that all this lined up on the week that this motion came through.'