'Even the dead have no peace' - fury as graves disturbed, items stolen from Kilkenny cemetery

A local councillor has said even the dead can have no peace in a Kilkenny City cemetery where some families have given up trying to maintain gravesites due to repeated theft and vandalism.

Cllr Eugene McGuinness has asked Kilkenny County Council and the gardai to do more regarding security at St Kieran’s Cemetery. Many families have been left distraught after visiting the cemetery and finding the graves of loved ones desecrated.

“Small precious items left by family members were vandalised, sometimes stolen and often left scattered around the cemetery,” Cllr McGuinness says.

“One lady who approached me told me she had only buried her beloved brother two days previous, only to find the grave had been disturbed, items taken and others broken. Another man told me how he visits the grave of a daughter every day but had stopped leaving small reminders of how much she is missed and loved on her final resting place because it’s too upsetting to come back the next day and find that those items have been stolen overnight.”

NO COMPASSION
One lady said that it was even more upsetting ‘knowing those who took them had obviously no compassion or understanding of how much those precious items meant to my daughter or my family when they stole and discarded them so easily’.

“These are just two of the many stories I’ve been told over the last number of months, all pointing to the same problem,” says Cllr McGuinness.

“With Christmas just around the corner many more people will want to visit the cemetery to pay their respects and they should have some peace of mind when doing so. I have informed the gardai and have reiterated that this kind of criminality should not and cannot be tolerated.

“I can remember a time and it doesn’t seem that long ago when even the common criminal understood the sanctity of consecrated ground, the final resting place, where generations of different families shared the same space but the accepted common denominator for all those who visited, was respect.

“It’s a sad day for our so-called progressive society and is surely an indication of how bad things have really become, when a sitting county councillor needs to ask for extra security on a cemetery, where even our dead can’t rest in peace.”