Motion calls for review of headstone height limits for Tipperary graveyards
Councillors in one district in Tipperary have called for a change to Tipperary County Council’s burial bylaws to allow tall headstones to be replaced like-for-like in cases where headstone replacement is required.
At the July meeting of the Thurles Municipal District, Fianna Fáil councillor Kay Cahill Skehan submitted a notice of motion asking that current graveyard policy be amended in certain places to allow for the placement of headstones that matches the size of existing headstones.
Under the local authority’s burial ground bylaws, headstones can only be a maximum of 4’ 11” in height, while a Celtic cross can be a maximum height of 7”.
Speaking at the district meeting, Cllr Cahill Skehan said that in parts of Thurles graveyard, there are old grave plots with old headstones that need to be replaced, and that her motion only seeks to allow for people to replace a headstone with one that is the same as what exists there.
"In certain parts of the graveyard in Thurles there are old headstones, and it’s an old part of the graveyard and it’s not referring to any new headstones,” Cllr Cahill Skehan explained.
"If one of those fell, it’s just that they could be replaced with similar to the existing one … people are just looking to put up the same as what they had in an old part of the graveyard,” she added.
In response to Cllr Cahill Skehan’s motion, the district administrator said that the environment section, who have responsibility for graveyards, will put forward a request that the burial bylaws be reviewed and that consideration be given to the replacing of a headstone that matches the size of the existing surrounding headstones.
Cllr Cahill Skehan’s motion was seconded by Fianna Fáil party colleague Sean Ryan.