Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Grangegorman is the largest military cemetery in Ireland, a walled five-acre graveyard on Blackhorse Avenue a stone's throw from the Phoenix Park. It opened in 1876 as a resting place for service personnel of the British Empire and their families, serving the soldiers of Marlborough Barracks, now McKee Barracks, with zones for English, Canadian, New Zealand and Australian servicemen. Among the mature trees and well-maintained lawns lie war graves from both world wars, some of the British soldiers killed in the 1916 Rising, children from the Royal Hibernian Military School, casualties of the sinking of the RMS Leinster in 1918 and a Victoria Cross holder, Company Sergeant Major Martin Doyle of the Royal Munster Fusiliers. A screen-wall memorial of Irish limestone commemorates war casualties whose graves elsewhere in Ireland can no longer be maintained. The OPW maintains the cemetery with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission; entry is free through the pedestrian gate, with free guided tours on Thursday afternoons from April to October, and dogs may come on a lead.