Mount Saint Lawrence Cemetery Project
On the 29 March 1849 Mount Saint Lawrence Cemetery was opened on an 18 acres site on Mulgrave Street to alleviate the overcrowded city graveyards. From 1849 until 1979 the cemetery was run by the Catholic Church and in 1979 it was taken over by Limerick City Council and the day to day running of the Cemetery is by the Environment Department.
Mount Saint Lawrence Cemetery was the primary place of burial in Limerick for all strata of society, from the wealthy to those who died in the Lunatic Asylum and Workhouses. The more prominent families tended to be buried along the central path close to the chapel. The 'Poor Squares' were located at the top of the cemetery at the left hand corner and in the bottom right corner.
Burial Records date from March, 1855 and the Burial Register records that over 70,000 individuals have been interred in Mount Saint Lawrence, up to 2009. The oldest individual recorded in the register is Mary Keane of Thomondgate, buried on 24th January, 1880 at the age of 110!
Mount Saint Lawrence Cemetery
Burial Register
Scanning and Transcription Project
In March 1855, Ellen Sharkey became the first name recorded on the Burial Register. In 2008 Limerick City Archives and Environment Department scanned the Original Burial Register and put them online. In 2009 the Limerick City Archives began to transcribe these records, a year later a joint project with the staff and students History and Geography departments of Mary Immaculate College began to transcribe these records in full. In August 2013 the searchable Burial Register Transcriptions for Mount Saint Lawrence were made available to the public.
Mount Saint Lawrence Cemetery
Grave Marker
Transcription and Mapping Project
In 2012 a new mapping system was introduced, in this the graveyard was divided into sections and each grave marker was photographed and gps tagged. Soon the Limerick City Archives and Mary Immaculate College Staff and Students began to transcribe the gravemarkers in Mount Saint Lawrence Cemetery. In April 2014 the first phase of the Headstone Transcription project was released to the public.
Searching the Grave Marker Database, you will notice two search boxes:
Search All Grave Markers this will search all the photographed grave markers in Mount Saint Lawrence Cemetery. Each grave marker photograph contains a family surname and the year of the first death recorded. You will be able to view the location of the grave marker and the grave marker photograph.
Search Transcribed Grave Markers this will search all the transcribed grave markers in Mount Saint Lawrence Cemetery to date, April 2014. This contains the full transcription from the grave marker including each individuals name and date of death where recorded. You will also be able to view the location of the grave marker and the grave marker photograph.
Beyond the Grave Conference
In April 2014 a three day joint conference called Beyond the Grave, was organised by Limerick City Archives and Mary Immaculate College. This delved into various aspects of death and burial in Ireland throughout the centuries. It was held in various locations throughout Limerick city and was a great success and attracted both national and international speakers and attendees.
Search the Project Databases
Limerick City Archives have made all the scanned City Burial Registers available online, here you can verify records on the Burial Register Transcriptions as well as search through other cemeteries not yet transcribed: Scanned Registers for Mount Saint Lawrence Original Register Scans, Mount Saint Lawrence Extension Original Register Scans and Mount Saint Olivers Original Register Scans.
You can also reference the Limerick City Library's Local Studies section Obituaries, taken from the Limerick Chronicle. The following Limerick City Graveyards and for Limerick County Graveyards have been transcribed by other groups.
Important Notice
Please remember that this is a historic cemetery. Many graves were reused after a period of time had passed and this would lead to individuals not related being interred in the same grave. Headstones were only erected by individual or families for individuals. If a person left no living relatives in Limerick a headstone may not have been erected.
If you find any transcription errors in the transcribed Burial Register Database or Headstone Transcription please contact via the feedback form.
You can find out more about the Limerick Museum and Archives projects by following us on Twitter and Facebook or by contacting archives@limerick.ie
Copyright information: The Mount Saint Lawrence Project information is free to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work and make derivative works based on it only for non-commercial purposes. Information obtained from this source must be cited to the original copy at Limerick City Archives