For the first time, all graves and memorials are publicly available with photos, full transcription and links to local history.
Dundalk Select Vestry made the tombstones and memorials available online for historical and public interest.
Welcome to St. Nicholas's Churchyard
Welcome to St Nicholas’s Churchyard, Dundalk, located in the grounds of St. Nicholas’s Parish Church, known locally as The Green Church. While St Nicholas’s Churchyard has been a place of burial probably since the foundation of the church in the 13th century, the earliest existing grave memorial dates from 1536, and only three have been in place since before 1700. Although the churchyard was closed for general use in 1896, interment after that date was allowed to approximately 70 people whose family graves or vaults still had available space. About 50 further burials took place, the last of these in 1933. St. Nicholas’ Churchyard holds the remains of people from all walks of life - landed gentry, soldiers, businessmen, tradesmen, and working-class parishioners.
St Nicholas’s Parish Church has for centuries been associated with the Church of Ireland, which is Anglican and Episcopalian, but the church and churchyard had already been linked to the town of Dundalk for several hundred years before the Reformation. The burial registers list over 4,000 Protestant burials since 1727, including a number of Presbyterian and Wesleyan entries.
As St. Nicholas’ Parish Church has such strong links to the town of Dundalk, we have undertaken to document and photograph all the tombstones in the churchyard. Not many people are aware of the hidden stories from behind the walls, the people buried there and their links to the town of Dundalk, going back hundreds of years.