It’s time to show our dead some respect

DUE to the derelict and overgrown condition of many of our older cemeteries — some of them historic — the Minister for the Environment should bring in legislation akin to the Derelict Sites Act to prevent them from falling into total disrepair.

We are a civilised people, but one would not know that from our cemeteries. It is an appalling indictment of us. The way we treat our dead shows that, as a nation, we are still only adolescent. In centuries gone by, the dead were always treated with respect.

In relation to The management and maintenance of burial grounds have been devolved from central Government to local authorities.