Irish Museum of Modern Art

Military cemetery for occupants of Royal Hospital Kilmainham, established c.1680, possibly incorporating earlier graves associated with Saint John's Priory. Variety of headstones, earliest dating from 1650. Triangular-plan area enclosed by rubble limestone boundary wall, steel railings on rubble stone boundary wall to north. Square-profile cut limestone pier with limestone capping and double-leaf steel gate to north-east corner.

Part of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, this cemetery is sited on the former grounds of Saint John’s Priory, which was established by the Knights Hospitalliers in the twelfth century. Initially established for the burial of all residents of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, it was later reserved for officers. There are sixty-seven extant tombstones in this burial ground, with the oldest legible headstone dated 1652, pre-dating the hospital by some thirty years. Several staff members of the Hospital, including Dr George Renny, who resided in the Deputy Master’s House, and two former adjutants of the Royal Hospital are buried here, as is William Proby, who was a veteran of the Battle of the Boyne and one of the earliest inmates of the hospital. His headstone is dated 1700. This site is important in the social and military history of the area, attesting to the long-standing ecclesiastical presence in the locality.