Searching for heroes among the dead

Who owns the dead? Who can claim that a deceased person’s spirit lives on in pursuit of changed circumstances?

The questions arose in the course of a walk through St Finbarr’s cemetery in Cork last week. I’m not a regular visitor, but circumstances dictated that a dog required a walk, and somebody had to be pressganged into providing his constitutional.

On a hazy day, with currents of cut grass perfuming the air, me and the mutt walked among the dead. Therein, corralled in the Republican plot, the question hung among the mute crosses. Who owns the dead?