‘Remember now as you go by, as you are now so once was I …’

From unmarked plots to striking monuments, Glasnevin Cemetery has become the final resting place to a microcosm of Irish society since it opened its gates in 1832. Every grave has a story to tell, but with more than a million souls resting there, many have been forgotten.

So Once Was I sets out to celebrate the quirky, strange and sometimes unbelievable tales of lesser-known figures in Ireland’s famous cemetery. Representing all threads of Irish society’s rich tapestry, from lion tamers to pioneering aviators, the mistress of the macabre to a mysterious, murderous count, forgotten revolutionaries to the mammy of Irish cooking, the cemetery’s population is reanimated in this book through vivid retellings of their lives. This intriguing tour through the national necropolis brings back to life those Joyce called the ‘faithful departed’, an intricate mosaic of stories rediscovered among the grandeur of Glasnevin’s famed monuments.