Killarney puts grave issue to rest

NEW CEMETERY TO OPEN LATER THIS YEAR AFTER DELAY

THE long-running Killarney graveyard saga officially came to an end this week with the opening of the new graveyard at Knockeendubh, which will serve the town of Killarney for the next 35 years.

The new graveyard has led to numerous rows in the council chambers as well as being the subject of a Bord Pleanála oral hearing.

Kerry County Council said this week the graveyard is open and ready to accept burials but that nobody has been buried there yet. Minor works remain to be undertaken.

News of the opening has been met with relief by many due to the huge shortage of burial spaces in the town. It also ends a decade-long search for a suitable site in the town for a graveyard.

The new graveyard has 2,300 plots as well as a columbarium for funeral urns, and a car park. The chosen location effectively split the council with some councillors against locating the graveyard at the chosen site in Knockeendubh. The landowner also objected to the compulsory purchase order of the five-acre site, which led to an oral hearing. During the hearing last August the Council was accused of ‘bullying’ in order to acquire the land.

The hearing also heard that the council had examined 13 sites in its search for a suitable location. They said the land was CPO’d after negotiations to buy it failed.

Last November, An Bord Pleanála ruled that the graveyard could go ahead, citing the overriding need for burial spaces among the reasons informing its decision.

Work has been ongoing in recent months but has been delayed in part due to bad weather.

It had been hoped to open the graveyard in May but this had to be postponed.