Bluebell, South Dublin City.

There is an early reference to Bluebell cemetery dated 1254 when Bluebell, the people who lived there, and the cemetery were most likely part of the Drimnagh Castle estate in the Parish of Drimnagh. The ruins of its medieval church, although small, dominate the cemetery. Later, and until the 1960s, Bluebell was part of the parish of Clondalkin, while the lower end was part of St Michaels, Inchicore.

Until 1953 Bluebell was mainly a rural farming community on the edge of the City. It was developed for houses by the Dublin City Corporation which saw a large influx of families and young couples into the area.

Over the years, the area became heavily industrialised with development of paper mills making use of the Camac river for their water supply. Gradually more industry moved into the area until the cemetery was and now remains completely surrounded by industrial concerns.

In 2011, I began a project as a volunteer for Dublin City Council to create a database from the original register book. This took quite some time as many errors had to be corrected which sometimes led to gravestones being moved to be on the correct plots.

I also undertook a project to make this publicly accessible and created the Bluebell Cemetery online with as many pictures as I had taken and processed at the time. More will be uploaded in due course. You can visit the site via this link.

Bluebell, South Dublin City

There is still much to photograph in the cemetery but all of the burials are listed.