Over 1,600 people who died in Dublin’s cholera pandemic remembered at Glasnevin Cemetery

Little is known about Anthony Donlevy, a Co Sligo man, who died and was buried in Dublin nearly 200 years ago.
A tombstone bearing his name was discovered between late 2015 and early 2016 by archaeologists excavating a planned Luas track site, between the Grangegorman and Broadstone stops, in works associated with the Luas Cross City project.
The tombstone carried a simple inscription: “Here lies the earthly remains of Anthony Donlevy who died 28th July 1832 this small tribute of affection is erected to his memory by his beloved wife Jane Donlevy.”
Donlevy’s tombstone was uncovered alongside the remains of 1,617 individuals. Even less is known about these people – other than the fact that there were the victims of the 1832 cholera pandemic, a disease that claimed over 22,000 lives in Ireland.
Research by archaeology firm Rubicon Heritage Services suggests that a site close to the old Richmond Female Penitentiary in Grangegorman – which was used as a cholera hospital during the pandemic – was used as graveyard where victims of the disease were buried.
This graveyard might have been disturbed in the 1870s during “expansion works” at the Midland Great Western Railway’s rail yard at Broadstone, with remains exhumed and reinterred close by.
Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) on Thursday morning unveiled a new headstone at Glasnevin Cemetery, honouring Mr Dunlevy and roughly 16,700 other victims of the cholera pandemic formerly interned at Grangegorman.
The ceremony marked the reinterment of the remains of those discovered during the Luas Cross City excavations.
“From the outset it has been the wish of TII to ensure these individuals were treated with the utmost respect,” a TII spokesman said in a statement.
“Through this formal burial in consecrated ground, it is the intention of TII and Glasnevin Cemeteries Trust that the dignity of these individuals is restored, that their loss is never forgotten, and that they may now truly Rest in Peace.”