A Different View with Dave O’Connell

We’re in November, traditionally seen by Catholics as the Month of the Holy Souls; the time of year when the dead are among the living. But there’s a growing trend that sort of turns that on its head – where the living are among the dead.

Welcome to the world of cemetery cafés; coffee shops that offer a cultural experience in some of the world’s best-known graveyards.

In truth, you don’t have to leave the country at all to experience this; there is a lovely coffee shop on the grounds of Glasnevin Cemetery close to the crematorium, and that makes sense for two reasons.

It offers mourners the chance to congregate after their loved one’s cremation, but it is also – and excuse the pun – an actual tourist haunt, where visitors can take a tour to visit the graves of Daniel O’Connell, Michael Collins, Parnell, de Valera, Maud Gonne and even, more recently, Luke Kelly among others.

But we have to give a nod to the German capital, Berlin, which has led the way on this cemetery café phenomenon, with Nonna Café in Prenzlauer Berg and Finovo in Schöneberg, for example, providing what they call a blend of history, humour and local coffee culture.

More than that, these cafés are part of a larger movement focusing on life rather than death, offering a quiet space with views of the cemetery grounds.

That may not be to everyone’s taste, but there has always been a quiet fascination with visiting old graves; cemeteries tell the history of a place in a way that the living cannot.

Headstones with scarcely legible names carved in, covered in lichens – but in their own way telling the story of life in death.

There’s even inspiration to be gleaned from such walks – as the Beatles did in St Peter’s Churchyard in Liverpool, where John Lennon and Paul McCartney first met and saw a headstone in the name of Eleanor Rigby.

The undeniable reality is that, as life goes on, you’ll find more of your old acquaintances in the cemetery than you will in the land of the living – which is as it always has been.

There is often great comfort in walking among the dead, remembering them quietly as you walk past – whether you knew them or not overground.

Some people make cemetery visits an integral part of their trips to foreign cities and countries.

Over 90,000 people annually visit James Joyce’s Swiss grave in the Fluntern cemetery in Zurich, making it a significant literary pilgrimage site.