Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will today announce a 10-year, €25 million programme for Dublin's Glasnevin Cemetery, funded under the terms of the National Development Plan.
Funding of €2.5 million a year will be provided to a Dublin cemeteries committee, working in partnership with the Office of Public Works.
A memorial to Kevin Barry and other prominent republicans will be created by artist Robert Ballagh, using the original covering stones from the graves of those who were executed in Mountjoy and buried there during the War of Independence.
Monuments and buildings at the graveyard will be restored and an interpretative centre established for visitors and tourists.
The graveyard, which is also known as Prospect Cemetery, is to be integrated with the Botanic Gardens nearby in time for the centenary of the 1916 Rising.
Many leading figures from Irish political and cultural history are buried in Glasnevin, including Daniel O'Connell; Charles Stewart Parnell; Roger Casement; Michael Collins; Eamon de Valera; James Larkin; Maud Gonne; Seán MacBride; Arthur Griffith; Cathal Brugha; Countess Markievicz; Anne Devlin; Jeremiah O'Donovan-Rossa; Erskine Childers; Kevin O'Higgins; Frank Ryan; Eoin O'Duffy; John Devoy; Frank Duff; Gerard Manley Hopkins, Christy Brown and Brendan Behan.
