Councillors want cemetery memorial bylaws to be suspended
Fine Gael councillor Deirdre Forde said she is concerned that Cork County Council intends to enforce the bylaws in October.
They would involve it telling families that they will have to remove kerbed ‘shrines’ to loved ones in newly designated ‘lawned cemeteries’ and that, if they do not, council workers will do the work themselves.
Ms Forde said she will be calling for the suspension of the bylaws until they are debated again by the councillors.
“I think we may have to change these bylaws if they’re going to hurt people’s feelings,” shee said.
The bylaws also state that personal memorabilia such as photographs of loved ones, teddy bears and floral tributes will be removed from such cemeteries and that no flowers or shrubs will be planted in plots in lawned cemeteries.
Ms Forde said people were also also confused as to whether the council will proceed to enforce the bylaws retrospectively. She said clarity was needed on that.
“It’s grand for the council to say it’s cost-effective, but we don’t have Arlington-type cemeteries here in Ireland,” she said.
She was referring to the lawned cemetery in America where famous US politicians, including John F Kennedy, and war veterans are buried.
Having a lawned cemetery like Arlington makes it easier to maintain and the county council is short of outdoor staff to carry out graveyard maintenance.
Fianna Fáil councillor Frank O’Flynn, who first raised the distress the bylaws could cause, said he was inundated with complaints by people yesterday after the story was published in the Irish Examiner.
“People are very upset about this and are saying to me ‘don’t touch our graves’,” he said. “They’re very angry saying the council should have more important things to do that enforce these bylaws.”
He said that, as Fianna Fáil party whip on the council, he would be meeting with his party colleagues to discuss the issue and would also bring it up formally with council officials when councillors meet after the summer recess on the second Monday in September.
“We have to treat this very sensitively,” he said.
“Many families have told me that they were not told when they purchased plots in these [lawned] cemeteries that they were not allowed to kerb them or decorate them with memorabilia. I think the way this was brought in was very insensitive.”
He added that he had sought to find out from his own municipal district council officials if people who purchased plots in recent years were informed they could not put up kerbing.
He said he was awaiting an answer.
Mellissa Mullane, deputy leader of Sinn Féin on the council, said she fully supported a thorough discussion on the bylaws.
“There should be nothing retrospective about the bylaws,” she said. “It doesn’t make economic sense to rip them up. Many of them are beautifully kept by families.”
Ms Mullane predicted that there would be “serious opposition” from those whose have created shrines to loved ones who have died very young or in tragic circumstances.
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