Tipperary County Council commences process to put controversial graveyard on its register

Tipperary County Council is to commence efforts to register its ownership of a graveyard in Kilboy, Dolla, which hit the headlines earlier this year due to CCTV cameras and electronic gates operating at the site.

The graveyard, which is on lands within the Kilboy estate owned by Shane Ryan, son of GPA and Ryanair founder Tony Ryan. has been the subject of controversy for a number of years.

Families with loved ones interred in the graveyard have objected to private security methods being used to monitor activity in the estate.

A motion in the name of all nine elected members of Nenagh Municipal District Council calling on Tipperary County Council to register its ownership of the graveyard with the Land Registry was before the latest district council meeting.

No discussion was held in relation to the motion, but it was unanimously adopted and District Administrator Rosemary Joyce said that the council would now move to register the graveyard in its ownership.

People with relatives interred in the burial ground have complained about being confronted by gardaí when going to and from the graveyard and see the cameras and other security measures being deployed as an unnecessary intrusion on their rights.

The Dolla Graveyard Committee has previously called on the council to register its ownership of the cemetery.

This August, Dolla Graveyard Committee called on local TDs, councillors and Tipperary County Council to intervene in the long-running dispute over access to their burial ground

The committee made the call to ensure that the graveyard was registered with the Land Registry and unimpeded public access secured in perpetuity.

Access to the graveyard is through a right of way from the public road to the graveyard

They pointed out in August in a statement that, in common with many other graveyards, for decades Dolla graveyard had been managed and tended to by a committee consisting of plot-holders and families of the bereaved.

However, they said, in 2016, the committee received correspondence from Kilboy estate stating that the estate owned the graveyard.

While the estate withdrew this letter within weeks, in 2018 it electrified the pedestrian gate and installed electrical infrastructure on the vehicular gate at the entrance to the graveyard, all controlled by the estate. This is supplemented by at least two surveillance cameras which monitor all entrants to the graveyard.

“The Dolla graveyard committee objected to what it described as “high handed and intrusive actions”, saying mourners and the bereaved should feel free to grieve in privacy and without requiring the permission of the Kilboy security apparatus to do so.

They pointed out that the graveyard was also public property owned by Tipperary County Council.

The committee said that Dolla graveyard was the ancestral burial ground for countless generations from the locality and continued as an active graveyard to this day.

Back in August, Tipperary County Council said it had been involved in engagement with the relevant stakeholders in relation to the future management of Kilboy burial ground.

At present, local publican Martin Ryan retains the key to the graveyard.

Kilboy Estate said at the time that it was seeking to balance the rights of local people with its security needs. They said the CCTV cameras were placed in positions it saw as appropriate following a Garda review.

They said that Kilboy Estate “fully respects” the rights of those with family members buried in the graveyard to use the right of way and the gate, the operation of which remained a “matter of ongoing discussion”.

Dolla graveyard has been in use as a place of worship and burial for nearly 1,000 years. It is the ancestral burial ground for countless generations from the locality.