Mystery Location No. 245: March 21, 2021

www.atlasobscura.com/places/john-kavanagh-the-gravediggers

I think that this is John Kavanagh, a pub also known as Gravediggers at 1 Prospect Square, Glasnevin, Dublin, D09 CF72, Ireland. It was opened near a cemetery and is a watering hole for both gravediggers and mourners. A few ghosts have been seen in the bar, a particular regular is a man dressed in tweed nursing a pint of Guinness.

The bar is right next to a gate to Glasnevin Cemetery. The original cemetery was a nine acre plot known as Prospect Cemetery. Today it comprises 124 acres with several famous Irish gravesites including Michael Collins and Daniel O’Connell. The O’Connell Tower (180 feet tall, the largest round tower in Ireland) survived a bombing attempt by Loyalists in 1971. The Latin inscription on the gate near the pub is “beati mortui qui in domino moriuntur” (I can’t swear to this translation, but Google tells me it is “blessed are those who die in the lord”.)

I found the “heartless” clue difficult. To me, it seems like heartless describes the way that Catholic burials were carried out in Protestant graveyards prior to Glasnevin allowing Catholic burials. Before Glasnevin, Catholics had no cemeteries of their own in Dublin and though they could bury their dead in Protestant cemeteries, they were criticized and stopped from holding masses at Protestant cemeteries. More likely, though “...the heartless pavements of th’ Dublin streets...” is a line from the Dublin-born playwright Séan O’Casey’s play Red Roses for Me.

I found the following article interesting...

www.bbc.com/travel/story/20161019-where-gravediggers-drank-their-pints