“Someone has to call stop” admits Limerick councillor over illegal gravestones
THERE have been forty “illegal” headstones or monuments erected on graves in Limerick city and county over the past five years. The “illegal” grave monuments have been deemed to be in breach of the council’s 2015 Cemeteries Bye-laws.
In a written response to Cllr Liam Galvin this month, it emerged that Limerick City and County Council has sent 24 enforcement letters on the matter in the past five years. But there has been just one court prosecution.
However, seven providers of gravestones, known as monumental sculptors, have been removed from the council’s Register of Approved Monumental Sculptors.
“There appears to be one law for some and no law for others,” Cllr Liam Galvin said at this month’s meeting of Newcastle West Municipal District. Some headstones that are being erected, he added, were costing €20,000 and €30,000. And he questioned how, if there is a limit on height, “how are so many of these monuments going up?”
“People don’t want to have their loved ones buried near these monuments,” he said. “Someone has to call stop.”
“Whoever is responsible in planning needs to do a survey,” Cllr Galvin said. “It needs to be challenged.”
“How do we get the message out that there are certain bye-laws there?” Cllr Francis Foley asked. “We need to strengthen that. How we do it, I really don’t know.”
The council, Cllr Jerome Scanlan pointed out, had absolute discretion to remove a headstone in breach of the bye-laws or without a permit.
The bye-laws can be viewed on the council’s web site and specify that a description and drawing of any proposed structure has to be submitted and approved before a permit can be issued. No structure can be erected without a permit and must not exceed 1.2m or 4feet 6 inches in height. The only exceptions are a Celtic Cross which can go as high as 2.13m or seven feet. Any exceptions in existing cemeteries must have a written permit and all permits must be available for inspection.
Windchimes, cardboard coffins and taking videos or photographs of a funeral are all breaches of the bye-laws. Any breach, on conviction in the District Court, carries a maximum fine of €2,500.