A Grave Case
New Year’s day 1895 was to be Margaret Whelan’s last. The 95 year old shopkeeper from Firhouse, had until recent months continued to live there and continued to run her small shop. Overtaken by a tedious illness, she had lately been brought to the hospital of the South Dublin Union. There she passed, in no small degree of discomfort, her final days. On her expiration, the usual notifications were sent out- to her daughter Mrs. Nolan and to a nephew, both residing in Firhouse. Everyone agreed 95 years was a very great age, and who would wish for longer if it was to be spent in the Union? On Thursday Mrs. Nolan went to the hospital and paid for a coffin and a hearse. The following Saturday the funeral took place with a removal to the graveyard at Tallaght. The heavy and frosted ground had been hard dug on that January morning, with the breath of the gravediggers visibly rising from the opened plot. A modest assemblage of elderly mourners stood around the grave as the