Snails ‘get priority over humans' in graveyards

By TOM GILMORE THERE was a deathly silence at Galway County Council meeting on Monday when a member of the local authority claimed that snails were being given consideration ahead of humans regarding the grave matter of extending burial grounds around the county.[private] Suddenly two other councillors, Sean Canney and Mary Hoade decided to join in with Cllr Sean O Tuairisg's claim that environmental considerations were stifling the granting of extensions to graveyards from Corofin to the Aran Islands. Running out of graves 'We are afraid of harming the little snail while people are running out of spaces to bury their dead in Connemara and the Aran Islands, and they don't want to have them cremated,' said Cllr O Tuairisg. He made his comments when a proposal under Part 8 of the Planning and Development Regulations for an extension to Kilmurvey Burial Ground on Inis Mor came before the council. When the extension was approved by the local authority the Connemara councillor was about to let the matter rest in peace but not so Tuam area Cllr Sean Canney. He decided to resurrect a similar matter in his area. 'Those involved with the graveyard in Cummer bought land for an extension years ago but they also ran into trouble over environmental issues. 'It's reaching a stage where it will not be possible to have people buried there as they are running out of space and something needs to be done,' he added. Not to be outdone in such a deadly serious debate Cllr Mary Hoade said she had three representations from people in the past two weeks regarding the lack of new burial spaces in the Headford area. 'There are only two burial spaces left in one of these graveyards. Do we check regularly with the caretakers of cemeteries regarding how many spaces are left?' she asked. Council does check The Director of Service Jim Cullen replied that the council does communicate with caretakers from time to time regarding the availability of burial plots in cemeteries around the county. 'But while it can be a slow process acquiring additional land for graves we have found that by and large people are generous in either donating plots or else selling us areas that are adjacent to existing graveyards,' he replied. The Director of Services added that, while he would try and find out what was causing the delay in providing extra graves in Cummer, he did not have the details in front of him for that meeting. The official might have thought that he had buried the matter at that stage but Cllr Sean Canney made no bones about wanting to get in a further dig at the council. He said that it was crazy that they were being told by the conservation people to look for new graveyards rather than extending the existing ones. 'This is only putting huge additional cost on local authorities,' he added, and with that the dust settled on the discussion.[/private]