Shortage of graves may be resolved

A DISCOVERY by Killarney Town Council that it owns four acres on the edge of Killarney National Park may help resolve a burial ground problem in the area, it emerged yesterday.

Independent Councillor Michael Gleeson made the discovery while perusing an act dating to 1932 under which the park was set up.

And, while he criticised senior civil servants for their “discourtesy and lack of respect” over the past 76 years in not telling the council it owned land in Muckross, he said the four acres could help solve the council’s burial site dilemma.

All new plots have been allocated in Killarney’s three public cemeteries but a privately owned burial ground is in operation in the Aghadoe area. The burial ground, adjoining the Aghadoe public graveyard, is owned by a local businessman.

Mr Gleeson wants the council to start negotiations with the National Parks and Wildlife Service with a view to agreeing to a land swap. The idea is that the council’s four acres in the Muckross area would be exchanged for another parcel owned by the parks service, which would be used for a burial ground.

“I believe the Bourne Vincent Memorial Act 1932 doesn’t exclude the possibility of an exchange,” Mr Gleeson said.

Last year, however, the Government turned down a request for land for a graveyard in another site in the Muckross area, pointing out that the land could not be leased, or disposed of, under the 1932 Act.

But, Fianna Fáil Cllr Brian O’Leary said other land in the national park, outside the area designated by the 1932 Act, could be considered for a graveyard.