Prospect of Power: Regime, revolution and the reconfiguration of Glasnevin Cemetery, 1913-23

Abstract

This thesis examines Glasnevin Cemetery during the Irish revolutionary period of 1913 to 1923. Utilising a spatial lens, it argues that its governance, development, and production led to it holding a unique position, which ensured that it was a contested political site where various factions sought to assert control and exploit its potential. Thus, this research contends that Glasnevin Cemetery was not only a practical burial place but is a complex site that was developed and instrumentalised for political ends. The importance of the dead body and burial space to the revolutionary generation was repeatedly demonstrated by these ongoing contests and the intensity of this discord. By examining the forces at play before, during and after the revolutionary period, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of how Glasnevin served as a stage for competing visions and political movements which sought control and the endorsement of the unspeaking dead and the soil that held their corporeal remains.