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UP TO 13 gravestones were vandalised at a cemetery in Dublin in the last week, including that of W.T. Cosgrave.
The Glasnevin Trust, who look after the cemetery, confirmed today that up to 13 Victorian and pre-Victorian monuments had been vandalised, with many being beyond repair.
Goldenbridge Cemetery is a relatively small graveyard located in Inchicore in Dublin.
The graves have been subjected to vandalism in the past, the Trust said. Cosgrave’s gravestone was previously destroyed in October 2014.
W.T. Cosgrave served as president of the Executive Council of Irish Free State (the first Prime Minister of Ireland).
The Trust said in a statement that the vandalism was “upsetting for all associated with the cemetery” particularly since it was working with other bodies to involve it in a local development project, including the re-opening of Goldenbridge fully after its closure to the public in the 1900s.
“Glasnevin Trust is actively engaged with the Gardaí in an effort to bring an end to these truly distressing acts of targeted vandalism,” the Trust said.
Goldenbridge Cemetery is locked to the public and can be visited by appointment only.
Gardaí confirmed that they were investigating the destruction of nine headstones between the 7 and 14 March.
No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
It is believed that teenagers may have been involved in the vandalism.
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Disgraceful to desecrate any grave. William Thomas “W. T.” Cosgrave was an Irish politician who succeeded Michael Collins as Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State from August to December 1922. I’m sure does who did this don’t know and don’t care
@John Moloney,
It was indeed a terrible thing to do, and shouldn’t have happened to anyone’s grave,but you left out the fact that Cosgrave was a war criminal who ordered the deaths of 77 defenceless republican prisoners of war.
He left it out cause it’s not a fact…
@Boganity,
It’s a fact, sorry to burst your little bubble of revisionist history.
@ Boganity Yes it is a fact. He ordered the execution of 77 Republicans without trial, including former friends and comrades, and said he was prepared to execute 10,000 more if necessary!
Cosgrave is the father of Irish democracy. Even when there was talk of an Army coup and other things, WT Cosgrave yielded power to De Valera in 1933. This was a symbolic moment in our free democracy as the Free State peacefully passed government to the Anti-Treaty de Valera and moved into opposition.
WT Cosgrave is the pillar of modern Irish democracy. For this, we owe him an infinite debt as this act removed the gun from Southern politics.
@Old Gordon,
We should be grateful to him, for doing what he was supposed to do?
Considering the Civil War was fought against men who refused to accept the majority will of the Irish people, it’s actually a fitting tribute that the victor of the Civil War who honoured the popular will of the Irish people, passed power to the man who refused to acknowledge the will of the people in 1922 yet won a general election in 1933.
That irony might be lost on our more Republican comrades.
Huge questions marks over that vote and it was a vote under threat. The entire free state government was also British controlled puppet that murdered more civilians than the black and tans.
It’s worth mentioning the loyalty of the Northern counties IRA to Collins. It shows that he believed that the Boundary Commission would make the Six Counties a rump state when it was deprived of it’s Catholic majority areas.
It’s pretty weak sauce to discount the will of the Irish people just because you don’t believe in the result. That’s rather de Valera of you.
We shouldn’t be surprised at how people like these behave. Keeping past hatreds alive so they can poison the present. It’s a shame they don’t have any culture or decency.
Sigh… anyway, shinnerbots, let’s hear from you about legitimate targets and so forth
Wasn’t cosgrave enforced the path to the king of England to hold power in the parliment kingdom of Ireland before Dev assumed power
Oath to the king *
I’m sure the idiots who did this have no idea who W.T. Cosgrave is. Nothing better to do I suppose. Sad all the way round.
Absolutely disgraceful. Doesn’t matter who the grace belongs to, it’s a graveyard! How do people like this even happen now a days?!
Filth…
What is society coming to when headstones are desecrated?
Is there any other country in the western world that would tolerate the attack on the headstone of a founder of their state??
Imagine somebody done this in America. They’d be locked up for decades.
Vandals attack gravestones, says it all really.
It doesn’t leave much to the imagination who the kind of gurrier who would vandalise gravestones. Feral teenagers with absolutely no sense of history nor common sense.
Dirty rotten S-bag low-life waste of oxygen worthless braindead idiots, the ultimate act of s-umbaggery to desecrate the grave of anyone!
You wouldn’t see the light of day if you tried this in the States.
I don’t care what your beliefs or agendas are, this is bang out of order. Makes us look like a shower of tramps. Culprits should be made pay for the damage and then bang them up for 3 months.
Agree with you Jimmy. This isn’t about politics or faith. It is up to us as people of decency to respect the dead after they are gone.
This was absolutely disgraceful behaviour.
Absolutely disgusting
The second time recently that Cosgrave’s grave has been desecrated. So it’s not mindless, random idiotic vandalism. It’s a targeted campaign by some sick, sad lonely individual.
Flog them.
Very sad and pathetic behaviour when the dead are now being targeted.
I lived in Inchicore for a year in the late nineties. I believe it’s much different now. Hope so.
No its worse u would say- zombie land
Still a kip
Similar to fascist attacks on Jewish graves in France and Germany.
Attacking the dead?
Big boys.
I doubt if the perp was alone …….. it’s not an area that even vandals would fell comfy alone at night on their way to and from their wicked work. I was shown around the cemetery once years ago, a really sad and folorn sort of place, once the burial ground of the infamous Goldenbridge orphanage ……. maudlin and gloomy.
Did he not also say of those living in the tenements that they would do the state a service by emigrating? Or was that another blue shirt?
Oh let it go!
First mass murderer of the 20th century.
have your say