Castlebar Fine Gael town councillor Ger Deere brought a motion calling on Castlebar Town Council to enact bye-laws that govern the size and scale of headstones in the new cemetery in the town to last week’s town council meeting. “This is an issue I’ve had a lot of representations about from people in the town,” Cllr Deere told the meeting. “They are concerned about the size of headstones that are going up in the cemetery and we need to preserve the dignity of the cemetery for everybody.”
Independent councillor Frank Durcan was supportive of Cllr Deere’s motion saying: “It’s a bit late now, but it’s something we need to do. I was on this council when we purchased the land for that cemetery and we had regulations put in governing the size of the headstones, but it only lasted a year. The council got rid of them following representations from a woman over the size of a headstone she wanted to erect, and it’s been a free for all since.” The council management agreed to look at the issue and see whether it was better to bring in regulations or bye-laws in relation to the issue.
