McGarel Cemetery, County Antrim
Mid and East Antrim councillors have approved a memorial for an unmarked paupers’ grave at a Larne cemetery.
The borough council’s Neighbourhood and Communities Committee was told that more than 200 men, women and children are buried in the plot at McGarel Cemetery at Old Glenarm Road and within a neighbouring Larne Union workhouse burial plot which is situated in a grass area in the grounds of Larne High School.
A report to the committee indicated pauper burials have taken place at McGarel Cemetery since it opened in 1867. However, the names and total number of the deceased in the communal graves are unknown.
Friends of McGarel Cemetery has requested memorial tablets to be erected to commemorate all those buried in unmarked communal graves locally. Councillors have been told the memorial in McGarel Cemetery would be the first.
It has been agreed a memorial of polished granite will be located at the rear gable wall of the former mortuary chapel building in the centre of the graveyard.
An inscription will read: “In memory of the unnamed men, women and children interred in communal graves in this cemetery and also those buried in the nearby Larne Union workhouse burial plot located in the grounds of Larne High School. This plaque is erected that they may not be forgotten.”
It is to be signed: Mid and East Antrim Borough Council, Friends of McGarel Cemetery and the Education Authority.
Speaking at the meeting, Larne Lough Alliance Councillor Maeve Donnelly said it will be an “excellent opportunity” to learn about the workhouse.
Commenting in an online post, Coast Road DUP Cllr Andrew Clarke stated:
“I am delighted that councillors have agreed to mark this with a plaque on the rear of this building.
“More than 200 people are believed to be buried here, including victims of the famine and others who died in destitute circumstances through the 19th century.
“Every human-being has an innate dignity and it is right they are not forgotten. It is also important that local history is remembered.”