Galway Bay fm newsroom:
A privately developed cemetery in south Connemara will be officially opened next Monday by the Minister of State for the Gaeltacht and Government Chief Whip, Seán Kyne.
This is believed to be the first privately owned cemetery in County Galway and will have space for a thousand burials.
This new cemetery at Cladhnach in Carraroe is the first of its kind in this County and it will be opened by Minister SeánKyne and blessed next Monday.
The private cemetery has been developed by Bobby McDonagh, a businessman from Lettermore in Connemara.
While some work remains to be completed the cemetery now has space for 650 burials.
A further section of the grounds is under development and will provide another 350 graves.
Plots containing two burial spaces will be sold at €1,250 with additional charges for opening and closing graves.
Mr McDonagh says he is willing to sell the cemetery to the County Council on a normal business basis but if that does not happen it will continue to be run privately.
Bobby McDonagh says that the new cemetery offers a partial solution to the near crisis that is arising because of lack of space in many Connemara cemeteries.
