Man mistakenly buried in somebody else’s plot
The council mistakenly sold somebody else’s grave to the family of Seán Miskella.
His relatives looked on in horror on Monday as gravediggers at Crosstown cemetery, Co Wexford, dug up the casket holding Mr Miskella’s ashes before burying it in a new plot.
The move came after it emerged that the council had already sold his grave to a different family more than 20 years ago.
Mr Miskella died from pneumonia in England last September. His family carried out his dying wishes by flying his remains home to Co Wexford after his cremation.
However, months after his funeral, the council notified the dead man’s family of the error. They advised that Mr Miskella’s remains would have to be relocated to a grave four plots away.
Wexford town clerk Pat Collins acknowledged that the local authority was to blame, stating the error more than likely happened 20 or 30 years ago when the grave was first bought.
“We tried to rectify it as best as we could,” he said, adding that the council was “very conscious” the family was still grieving.
“There’s no question, we made a mistake.”
Mr Collins said the council wrote a letter of apology to the Miskella family and offered €2,000 to cover the expense of family members travelling to a second burial.
Mr Miskella lived with his wife, Celie, in Wexford Town for most of their lives. The couple moved to Brixton in London 12 years ago.
This week, Mr Miskella’s widow, along with two of the couple’s four children, returned to Wexford for the exhumation and reburial along with other family members, just five months after Mr Miskella’s death.
A family member condemned the council’s actions as “disgusting”. She said the family had not received “any letter of apology”.
The relative said they only discovered problems with the grave when a stonemason pointed out that the council had not given written permission for a headstone.
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