A project in Tallaght has young people clean up Saint Maelruain's Church of Ireland grounds and graveyard.
Saint Maelruain's Cemetery in Tallaght County Dublin benefits from a Teamwork project funded by the Department of Labour and administered by a joint Foróige and County Dublin VEC youth development team.
The project saw the old graveyard tidied up, headstones cleaned and mapped with the intention of hosting a photographic and art exhibition based on the cemetery in a local public library.
Project supervisor Regina Allen describes the condition of the cemetery prior to the commencement of the clean up. The grass was waist high and had to be cut back just to see the gravestones. The volunteers spent about two weeks noting inscriptions and taking photographs before each individual grave, tree and bush was tended to. The earliest gravestone dates from 1658 and burials continue to this day. A complete record of all burials has now been produced from the mid-seventeenth century until today.
St Maelruain's Church and Cemetery Tallaght (1986)
The cemetery contains a variety of gravestones including Celtic style, 18th century limestone, table tombs, as well as the more modern marble headstones.
Many of the gravestones had sunken and members of the team had to dig deep in order to read the epitaphs.
Water, sponges, chalk and even pencils were employed to try to trace the weather beaten, time worn inscriptions on the stones many of which were barely traceable by the human eye.
Tracing Gravestones at St Maelruain's Church and Cemetery Tallaght (1986)
Researcher Martin Smith explains how the work was carried out specifically looking at a gravestone of a Lord Mayor of Dublin James Lambert who died in 1877.
When all the groundwork was completed, the team assembled all their maps, drawings, paintings and photographs for an exhibition at Castletymon Public Library. The exhibition was a great success with a lot of local people finding out more about their own community.
The Teamwork Project continues until July after which the members will move on to other community based schemes.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 23 May 1986. The reporter is Colm Murray.
