Goldenbridge Cemetery is Ireland's first garden cemetery and was founded by ‘the Liberator’ Daniel O’Connell almost 200 years ago.
Every Thursday and Saturday at 1 pm you can take a tour from Richmond Barracks to the Cemetery.
Visitors will be guided through this unspoilt cemetery and learn about its unique history, including the vaults, the armed guards, the Cuban bloodhounds, the body snatchers and the people buried in the historically significant and interesting graves within its walls.
You will hear the stories of two former Taoisigh and their family member Vol. Thomas Burke killed in action in the Easter Rebellion. A new stone has been erected over Eugene Lynch killed by in 1916, aged eight years. We will visit the resting place of a rebel priest of 1798 and Doctor Bob Kenny who befriended Parnell and James Joyce.
Goldenbridge Cemetery is maintained by Dublin Cemeteries Trust.
Goldenbridge is the foundation stone of Dublin Cemeteries Trust, the first cemetery to be opened by Daniel O'Connell and the Dublin Cemeteries Committee in 1828, to fulfil his vision to provide dignified burial space "for those of all religions and none".
An oasis of calm and tranquility in Inchicore, close to the city centre, it is also the smallest of their cemeteries, covering just two acres. Like Glasnevin, which opened four years after Goldenbridge, it is a Victorian Garden cemetery. Dominated by beautiful mature trees and a large central monument, this is a unique space with a distinctly peaceful, even rural atmosphere.
The Mortuary Chapel
The striking neo-classical Mortuary Chapel at Goldenbridge was completed in 1835. Beneath it are vaults that were built to house guards and Cuban bloodhounds that would protect the cemetery against bodysnatchers who would attempt to dig up and steal corpses from cemeteries in order the sell them to those who were studying anatomy and medicine.
A staircase within the walls of the chapel would allow them to reach the roof and view the surrounding area, while the high walls that surround the cemetery were completed before any burials took place in order to reassure those who were burying their loved ones within the cemetery that they would be well protected.
A working cemetery
In 2017 Goldenbridge reopened as a working cemetery, offering new burial plots for the first time in nearly 150 years. Income derived from the sale of graves and columbaria at Goldenbridge is used exclusively for the conservation, restoration and maintenance of the cemetery.
