AN ISLAMIC BURIAL section is to be established at a Dundalk cemetery after repeated requests over six years by the local Muslim community.
Cooley man Mohammad Salim Lennon told Metro Éireann that members of Co Louth’s Muslim community – who number around 4,000 – are “absolutely over the moon” at the news.
He said it appears another plot in Drogheda may also be made available.
“Lo and behold, the Wee County ends up with two burial grounds,” he enthused.
However, the Muslim convert expressed major concern about the length of time the process has taken, saying the first approach to the Dundalk Joint Burial Board was made some six years ago.
Moreover, he believes the presence of a camera crew filming the local Muslim community for an RTÉ-commissioned programme spurred local officials to act.
According to Lennon, there are only a handful of plots in the country which cater for Muslim burials, and members of the 40,000-strong Irish Muslim community who don’t live near these locations travel miles to bury their dead – a particular hardship given that Islamic tradition is to perform burials as soon as possible after death.
Deceased Muslims are laid in graves in a shroud, on his or her right side facing Mecca.
A motion to “facilitate burial of members of the Muslim community” was put to Louth County Council on 21 February by Sinn Féin councillor Tomás Sharkey, and was unanimously passed.
Although the council does not own or manage cemeteries, Lennon believes council officials then applied pressure behind the scenes, and the Muslim community subsequently got a letter from the Dundalk Joint Burial Board.
Irish law allows such boards to acquire land compulsorily for the purposes of providing a new burial ground or making additions to a burial ground, and a plot has now been designated for Muslims at St Patrick’s Cemetery in Dowdallshill, Dundalk.
Lennon pointed out that a camera crew was shooting a ‘Meet the Neighbours’ series in Dundalk at the time – which included local Muslims – and he had initially been “fuming” on-camera at the state of affairs before the positive decision came through.
Filmmakers were also present outside Louth County Council following the motion. The programme will air on RTÉ One on 29 April, said Lennon.
“Nobody has asked the central question, and that’s how this could’ve taken six years?” he said. “Who was responsible for kicking it down the road?”
He said Muslims had never asked for free plots and were prepared to pay their way.
Cllr Sharkey, who brought the motion to council, felt the issue had been “lost in a system of officialdom”.
He said it should be “written on the wall paper” of public administration that Muslims have a section in burial grounds. “This obviously should have happened automatically.”
The Sinn Féin councillor pointed out that if a library is built, it has a ramp for easy access, but the diversity issue is far behind that of disability.
“Muslims are doctors, nurses, teachers, parents, students,” he said. “I’m an Irish teacher and I have Muslim children who are fantastic Gaeilgeoirí. They haven’t just arrived off the plane… they are part of the fabric.”
