Families asked to come forward to help with St Loman's graves database

The families of those buried on the grounds of St Loman’s Hospital are being asked to ‘come forward’ to help with a database of names being collected.

The records of the more than 1,300 people buried at the former psychiatric facility are currently held by the HSE, who say their release would be in breach of GDPR.

Julie Clarke is involved in a project to collect the names and add them to a memorial wall at the gravesite to honour their lives.

“We would like anyone who has relatives buried in the graveyard at St Loman’s, or even thinks they might have a relative, to contact us,” she said.

“We are creating a database of names of those that are buried in the graveyard to go on the memorial wall.”

Ms Clarke started with one name on the list, her grandmother Julia Leonard, and now has 10.

She said they “can’t get access to the register of names” but they are put on display once a year.

“Every year there is a memorial Mass for those buried at St Loman’s and the register is laid out at the Mass for everyone to see.

“It has over 1,300 names on it and we’d like to see their family members reach out and contribute to our database.

“I’m being optimistic about this, but I always believe in a challenge,” she said.

• To add a family member to the database, contact Julie Clarke directly at julie@friendsofjulia.com.