Friends of Julia take St Loman's graveyard campaign national

“We’re taking it to a national level, because we’ve calculated there are 50,000 people buried at 18 institutions across the county,” says Julie Clarke of a campaign to record the names of people buried in the cemetery at St Loman’s Hospital in Mullingar.

Speaking at the site last week as an RTÉ crew recorded the final scenes of ‘All That Remains’, a documentary to be broadcast in March, Julie said the long running campaign to secure the site and ensure it is not given over to development has gained momentum recently, and she expects the television exposure will help their case.

The campaign, Friends of Julia, is named for Julie’s great grandmother, Julia Leonard, who is interred at the graveyard.

“We want the names, 1,304 names, released, to be put on a memorial wall here in the graveyard,” said Julie. “The HSE so far are refusing to do that. And we also want them to release the 50,000-plus names and to work on the 18 institutions because it’s a national issue, and it reflects how mental health is viewed today.”

Julie has been campaigning for some 15 years to have the future of the graveyard secured, and Niall (Bressie) Breslin has been working with her, lending his profile as a musician and mental health advocate to the cause.

He was also at the cemetery for the documentary filming, as he presents it. He told the Westmeath Examiner how important it remains in the present time.

“One of the things someone said to me when I was on the way in was, this is hundreds of years old; I said yes, and it gets passed on. That is how Ireland has always worked. We pass on these things until somebody decides not to pass it on any more, and I think something like this – as symbolic and as important as it is – is a statement to say that is an Ireland we’ll leave behind now.

“The graveyard is important; to me it’s symbolic, especially the fact that there were no names, and one thing I say when we talk about mental health stigma is if you want to talk about how to get rid of stigma, you have to know where it comes from. It comes from places where we put people in graveyards with no names, that’s where these stigmas come from, they don’t come out of thin air, so this [the Friends of Julia campaign] is a way of hopefully eroding that a little bit.”

Niall continued: “There are asylums, as they were called, throughout Ireland with graveyards similar to this, and for me the big thing about this is, let us be let us be the leaders here, let us show what we can do by working together and creating a place of solace and comfort and support. You can see you can see it in the families here what it means to them – it’s hugely important, don’t underestimate that.”

Julie Clarke and her husband Hayden O’Connell are leading Friends of Julia and they have been working with the HSE Graveyard Committee. Asked how it is progressing, Julie said: “One of the things we’ve got done, or will be done, is there are going to be these stone seats around the perimeter of the plot, with inscriptions saying, ‘this is a graveyard, please respect it, there are 1304 people buried here’.”

They have a website (friendsofjulia.com) and a database where people can search by family name to see if ancestors were buried at St Loman’s. Burial at St Loman’s began in 1907 and the last was in 1970. They were single burial graves, marked with white crosses which had numbers instead of names. Most of the crosses were there until 2011 when they were removed to address vandalism concerns and facilitate maintenance.

Julie said they are trying to persuade An Taoiseach Micheál Martin to take an interest in their campaign: “We’ve taken it to a national level, and that’s what the RTÉ documentary is also focusing on – that it is 50,000-plus we’ve calculated across these 18 institutions. Ultimately we need the Taoiseach to come on board with this. It’s a national issue and we want to go right to the top, because if we go broad with this to the BBC, this is how Ireland is seen. You talk about the Tuam babies… there are children buried here too, and at all the other ancient institutions. We’ve discovered two-year-olds, three-year-olds, seven-year-olds.”

Julie says the stories of the people who were in the institution are also current stories, “and they really are an insult to mental health, and how mental illness is still seen”.

“If I was to die today in a psychiatric institution with no family, I’d still be buried with a number, because that’s the system that’s in place.”

Discussing the RTÉ documentary, she concluded: “What we hope is that this will give a little bit of media attention that we haven’t had, give us a bit of a platform to get a meeting with the Taoiseach, with the top brass in the country.”

HSE 'fully committed to restoration of graveyard'

Mental Health Services in HSE Dublin and Midlands are fully committed to the restoration of the graveyard located on the St Loman’s Campus, Mullingar, to appropriately honour and memorialise those buried there. This work is being carried out through a dedicated project currently under way, involving the conservation and restoration of the graveyard in line with professional archaeological and architectural guidance.

The project is overseen by a steering group operating in partnership with interested family members and the HSE. A contractor has been appointed to complete restoration works, with a target completion date at the end of Q1 2026.

Progress has been made to date, the project includes:

• Installation of a new map board within the graveyard to support visitors with information on St Loman’s Graveyard

• Installation of six engraved benches in a reconstituted stone finish

• Development of a memorial listing the names of deceased individuals for whom consent has been received from next of kin, with capacity to add additional names in future as required

• A handcrafted wooden memorial cross, created by local sculptor Richie Clarke

• Sourcing of a new gate

• Extensive remedial groundwork to improve access and support ongoing maintenance

• Planting of respectful hedging along the boundary walls to protect and clearly define the graveyard

The HSE remains committed to ensuring the graveyard is treated with dignity and respect, and that the restoration works reflect the wishes of families and the local community.

Conservation and Management Plan, Reilig Ospidéal Naomh Lomáin, St Loman’s Cemetery, Mullingar