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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Rory Carroll Ireland correspondent

‘A clash of cultures’: Irish opinion split over Travellers’ elaborate headstones

Headstones in Ballyhaunis cemetery, County Mayo.
Headstones in Ballyhaunis cemetery, County Mayo. Photograph: Patrick Bolger/The Guardian

The latest addition to Ballyhaunis cemetery in Ireland’s County Mayo towers over neighbouring headstones in a blaze of white marble and ornamentation. Rose-wreathed pillars frame a tableau of statues showing Jesus, angels, cherubim and biblical scenes, including an engraving of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper.

Marble tablets express bereavement in gold letters, a photo of the deceased gazes from a carved stone bench and lanterns with diamond-shaped bulbs and electric sensors flank the central slab.

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