Maudlins Cemetery is a

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland (, ; , ) is a Christian church in Ireland, and an autonomy, autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the Christianity in Ireland, second-largest Christian church on the ...

cemetery located in

Naas Naas ( ; or ) is the county town of County Kildare in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In 2022, it had a population of 26,180, making it the largest town in County Kildare (ahead of Newbridge, County Kildare, Newbridge) and the List of urban ar ...

, Ireland. It is notable for its two large

pyramid A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...

-shaped mausoleums, and as the burial place of much of the local anglo/norman aristocracy.

History

The name is archaically spelled ''Maudlings''; derives from

Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to crucifixion of Jesus, his cr ...

, often depicted in art as mourning for

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

after his crucifixion, and thus associated with burial grounds (cf. '' maudlin''). At the time of the dissolution of the monasteries (c. 1540),

Great Connell Priory Great Connell Priory () is a former house of Augustinian canons dedicated to Saint Mary and Saint David, situated on the eastern side of the River Liffey, in the Barony of Connell just to the south-east of the town of Newbridge, County Kildare, ...

was noted as possessing seven acres near to "the Maudelein of Naas." By 1606 the lands at Maudlings belonged to the

chantry priest A chantry is an ecclesiastical term that may have either of two related meanings: # a chantry service, a set of Christian liturgical celebrations for the dead (made up of the Requiem Mass and the Office of the Dead), or # a chantry chapel, a bu ...

s of St. David's Church, Naas. The cemetery dates to a 1780 donation by

John Bourke, 1st Earl of Mayo John Bourke, 1st Earl of Mayo (; ; circa 1705 – 1790), styled Lord Naas (; ) from 1775 to 1781 and Viscount Mayo from 1781 to 1785, was an Irish politician and peer who was MP for Naas (1727–60, 1768–72) and Old Leighlin (1760–68) an ...

. The west pyramid was built in honour of Anne de Burgh, wife of

Walter Hussey Burgh Walter Hussey Burgh SL (; ; 1742 – 1783) was an Irish statesman, barrister and judge who sat in the Irish House of Commons, served as Prime Serjeant (1777–79, 1782) and Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer (1782–83). He was considered to ...

, while the east pyramid is unmarked but believed to belong to another member of the

De Burgh de Burgh ( , ; ; ) is an Anglo-Norman surname deriving from the ancient Anglo-Norman and Hiberno-Norman noble dynasty, the House of Burgh. In Ireland, the descendants of William de Burgh (c.1160–1206) had the surname ''de Burgh'' which was gae ...

family. The cemetery was expanded in 1889. The ''Journal of the Co. Kildare Archaeological Society'' recorded in 1895 that

grave-robbing Grave robbery, tomb robbing, or tomb raiding is the act of uncovering a grave (burial), grave, tomb or crypt to steal Grave goods, commodities. It is usually perpetrated to take and profit from valuable artefact (archaeology), artefacts or person ...

took place at Maudlins, with the body of Moorehead, former governor of Naas Gaol, being one of the victims. The two pyramids were restored in 2020 with €65,000 from the Follies Trust.

Notable burials

*Earls of Mayo **

Robert Bourke, 5th Earl of Mayo The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, praise, reno ...

*the Earls of Clonmell ** *the De Burghs of Oldtown **

Hubert de Burgh Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent ( , ; – before 5 May 1243) was an English nobleman who served as Chief Justiciar of England (1215–1232) and Justiciar of Ireland (1232) during the reigns of King John and his son and successor King Henry I ...

(1879–1960) **

Eric de Burgh General Sir Eric de Burgh, (; ; 10 May 1881 – 6 February 1973) was a British Indian Army officer who served as Chief of the General Staff in India from 1939 to 1941. Military career Educated at Marlborough College and the Colonial College, ...

, general *the

De Robeck Baron de Robeck is a title of the head of the Irish Fock family which has its origins in Sweden. Jakob Constantin Fock, a Swedish landowner, had bought the Räbäck estate in the parish of Medelplana, Skaraborg County in the province of Västerg� ...

s of Gowran Grange. *Alexander Taylor (1746–1828), cartographer

Gallery

File:CF Blacker Grave in Maudlin's Cemetery, Naas.jpg, Grave of Lieut. C. F. Blacker,

died of wounds Killed in action (KIA) is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their personnel at the hands of enemy or hostile forces at the moment of action. The United States Department of Defense, for example, say ...

received at the

Battle of Mons The Battle of Mons was the first major action of the British Expeditionary Force (World War I), British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in the First World War. It was a subsidiary action of the Battle of the Frontiers, in which the Allies of World W ...

, 1914 File:A Grave in Maudlin's Cemetery, Naas.jpg, Gravestone of the De Robecks File:De Burgh plot, Naas Maudlin.jpg, De Burgh plot

References

External links

Maudlin's Cemetery at historicgraves.com
* {{Authority control Cemeteries in County Kildare Anglican cemeteries in Ireland Religion in County Kildare Naas 1782 establishments in Ireland Cemeteries established in the 1780s