Preservation of graveyards is 'human necessity', says primate

The Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland has called for the preservation of Ireland's graveyards and a "more reverent and less utilitarian approach" to burials.

The Most Rev Alan Harper made the comments on Wednesday in his talk, 'The Power and Significance of Sacred Space' organised by the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society.

The wide-ranging talk explored sacred buildings, sites and structures in a ritual landscape and the importance of burial grounds

Sacred spaces offer an opportunity to experience 'otherness', he noted.

"Intimations of the sacred continue to exert powerful influence even in the absence of any commitment to faith, especially but not exclusively where sacred space is demarcated by 'landmark buildings'," he said.

"This is not merely because of the quality of such buildings but also, crucially, because of those intimations of an encounter with 'otherness' that such places enshrine."

The Archbishop, who has previously served in a number of archaeology and history bodies, spoke of the ancient significance of hilltop sites such as the Hill of Armagh and the positioning of the city's two cathedrals on elevated sites.

He also spoke of the importance of ritual landscapes as Ireland's premier ancient sites, Tara and Fort Navan, or Emain Macha as it is called in Irish.

Archbishop Harper said he "longed for the day when something can be done to restore and render accessible some vestige of Lough na Shade (a small lake in County Armagh) in its integral, spatial and historical relationship with the ritual landscape that is Emain Macha".

Graveyards, he added, bore the "sequential fingerprints of change".

"So rich a repository of human knowledge and self understanding are our graveyards that their respectful care and preservation need to be seen as both a human and scientific necessity."