Europe

Arbour Hill Cemetery, Dublin, Ireland

The last people I expected to find in Arbour Hill were Padraig Pearse, James Connolly, and Sean McDermott. I would have bet money that they were all safely ensconced in…
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John the Valiant

Three hundred and seventy verses with 1480 lines make for one hell of a long poem. But I read them all, cover to cover, the first time I picked up…
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Chiesa di Santa Chiara, Enna, Sicily

Chiesa di Santa Chiara is more than a church, it’s an indoor cemetery. Until 1767, it was home to the Jesuit fathers but later, after the Jesuits had been expelled…
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Cimitero Comunale, Scicli, Sicily

Heading out of Scicli, our visit over, we turned back on ourselves as I carefully navigated a hairpin bend on a steep hill. There, over in the distance, MI spotted…
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Pokopališče Piran, Slovenia

Perched high on a high above the medieval town of Piran, billed as the pearl of the Slovenian Meditteranean, sits the last resting place of those who’ve called the town…
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Varaždin Cemetery, Croatia

I’ve often wondered who plans and designs cemeteries. How do they start? Does someone have a grand vision, buy a field and wait for people to come to buy their…
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Wolfe Tone's grave Bodenstown Co Kildare

Bodenstown Graveyard, Co. Kildare

As a child in the 1970s, I remember June as an ambiguous time. Crowds would come down from the North to commemorate the death of Wolfe Tone, the founder of…
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@ 2024 Mary Murphy