Old Church Cemetery, Cobh

The old church cemetery is an important historical site because it contains the graves of many individuals who were affected by the mass emigrations that occurred during the 19th and early 20th centuries in Ireland. Many of the people buried in the cemetery were passengers on ships that left Ireland during the Great Famine and other periods of economic hardship. The cemetery also contains 3 mass graves of victims of the sinking of the RMS Lusitania in 1915. The oldest grave at Old Church Cemetery is 400 years ago. And many are marked with beautiful, ornate Celtic crosses. The old church cemetery in Cobh is a reminder of the human toll of these historical events and serves as a poignant reminder of the struggles and sacrifices of the people who lived during these difficult times. The cemetery is a 1.2 km walk from Cobh.

The Old Church Cemetery (also known as Cobh Cemetery) is an ancient cemetery on the outskirts of the town of Cobh, County Cork, Ireland which contains a significant number of important burials, including a number 3 mass graves and several individual graves containing the remains of 193 victims of the passenger ship RMS Lusitania which was sunk by a German torpedo off the Old Head of Kinsale during the First World War in May 1915 with the loss of more than 1,100 lives. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission register and maintain the graves of 127 identified Commonwealth service personnel (including Lusitania victims) from the same war.

No one is sure when a church was erected on this site, however we can presume that it was part of the Celtic Church prior to the arrival of the Normans. It remained a place of catholic worship until the collapse of the rebellion of 1581 when Lord Ormond and his English army signalled their victory over the Earl of Desmond by burning down the church. In 1694 a protestant church was built on the walls of the old church. It remained a place of Protestant worship until 1815 when St. Mary’s Church was completed in the town (near Roches Row). The old church was then allowed to fall into ruins. Around the old church is one of the most cosmopolitan graveyards in Ireland with people of many races and creeds buried here. Very many are seafaring men who found their last resting place in this quiet corner of the Great Island. For centuries wealth was a pre-requisite for burial within a church’s walls or to erect a memorial. “Ordinary” people were buried in the churchyard with only mounds of grass or pieces of wood to mark their graves. However by the late 1600’s the merchant classes had assumed the tradition of erecting stone memorials to their dead. The oldest remaining headstone in this cemetery dates to 1698. Many headstones are now worn and difficult to read, but an examination of them can be rewarding as they form an astonishing demonstration of the stonemason’s craft.

This cemetery has a plot for those men from the "Lusitania" whose remains were washed ashore. There are now 127 Commonwealth burials of the 1914-1918 war commemorated here. There are also 14 non World War service burials and 1 Belgian Foreign National burial. ***PH***