by Bernie English [email protected]
LIMERICK City and County Council is planning to erect a memorial to the unknown dead who were dug up when the local authority was building a new road through the historic Abbey area of Limerick city.
Independent councillor, John Gilligan, proposed at last Monday’s meeting of the Metropolitan District of the local authority that a memorial be erected to them at Mount St Oliver cemetery, where they were reinterred.
“At first, we found about six skeletons, which were very carefully taken and reburied. But in the end, we had to get on with the road and we brought in a JCB and a truck and they were taken out and reinterred in Mount St Oliver.
“I feel we now have a responsibility to provide some kind of memorial for these souls, who were citizens of Limerick City and whose names are forgotten”.
Cllr Gilligan referred to the practice of burying women who had been incarcerated in the Good Shepherd convent in unmarked, mass graves and pointed out that they have now been commemorated.
“The people from the Abbey area who were reinterred are now the only ones without a memorial to mark their resting place,” he told the meeting.
And his comments didn’t fall on deaf ears as council officials told the meeting that there are plans afoot to erect a memorial in Mount St Oliver to commemorate the unknown souls.
