St. Joseph's Cemetery, Cork, was established for the burials for the poor, by temperance campaigner Father Mathew in 1830 when he leased land from the Botanical Gardens.[1] It was sometimes called Father Mathew Cemetery.[2] It was extended in 1880, and Fr. Mathew is buried in the cemetery.[3] A large number of victims of the Irish Famine are buried on the site, many in unmarked graves.
There are also 24 burials of those who died from the 1914-1918 war and 4 from the 1949-1945 war here, maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.[4]
Cork Corporation took over the cemetery in 1968.[5]
The Society of African Missions Church (St. Joseph's) in Wilton, Cork,[6] has a graveyard beside it confusingly also called St. Joseph's Cemetery. [7] There are other cemeteries in Cork called St. Joseph's, among them St. Joseph's Cemetery Mallow, and St. Joseph's Cemetery Little Island.