A KERRY COUNTY councillor claims that the local graveyard in her town is so full a husband and wife might not be able to be buried together in the one place.
Killarney area councillor Maura Healy Rae, daughter of TD Danny, raised the issue of space at the local Aghadoe cemetery at the latest meeting of Kerry County Council yesterday, according to Radio Kerry.
She declared herself ‘totally dissatisfied’ at that meeting that the matter of a new graveyard for the area was held over for discussion at a later date.
“Well the lack of space at the graveyard is now critically low, I’m hearing that from both undertakers and locals,” she told TheJournal.ie.
Killarney is a well-populated area as you can imagine. My information is that there are between three and seven family plots remaining.
It’s getting to the stage where a wife and a husband might not end up in the same grave. And it’s not a new issue, it’s been going on since my grandfather’s time.
Healy Rae claims that the council “say they can’t answer the question (of how much space is available), and won’t answer it”.
“The new cemetery hasn’t even gotten through planning yet. So what conditions are the council going to apply to people in Kerry in the interim?”
In reply to a query from TheJournal.ie, Kerry County Council said that it is “currently progressing the development of a new public graveyard at Knockeenduff, a short distance from Killarney town”.
The site will provide 2,315 burial plots. This development is currently progressing through the land acquisition and planning phase.
A spokesperson added that the council is “satisfied that there are sufficient plots, several dozen, available in the public graveyard at Aghadoe to meet demand until the new graveyard becomes available”.
There are also a further 1,400 plots in graveyards in the greater Killarney area.
When asked specifically how many double plots are available, the response was “about one dozen are available at Aghadoe at present”.
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