Family put up umbrellas and wear helmets in Limerick graveyard as they fear being 'killed' by golf balls

AN EXTREMELY ‘teed off’ County Limerick family say a person is going to be killed “stone dead” in a historic graveyard by a ball from an errant golfer.

Family members have been forced to wear helmets and put up umbrellas to protect themselves from getting hit by golf balls when visiting loved ones laid to rest in St Nicholas Graveyard in Adare.

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The cemetery, where the Earls of Dunraven are buried, is situated between two holes of Adare Manor Golf Club - not the Golf Course at Adare Manor which will host the Ryder Cup in 2027.

Geraldine McNamara, Patrickswell, and her brothers Michael and John O’Grady spoke to the Leader in the graveyard on the third anniversary of the passing of their 91-year-old mother Kathleen (Kitty) O’Grady. The family grave is at the back of the cemetery close to the wall separating the consecrated ground from the parkland golf course.

Geraldine had an umbrella over her head not because it was raining but to protect her six-month-old granddaughter Kayla.

“I'm petrified. I have to bring the umbrella with me to protect the child. About a month ago I went with my daughter Megan and the baby to my mother and father’s grave. I told Megan to put the hood up in the buggy and turn it away from the direction the golf balls come from.

“Within two or three minutes a ball just came flying in and narrowly missed the buggy. It was a fraction away. The child could have been killed. My daughter got an awful fright - she was screaming. If the buggy was turned around God knows what would have happened,” said Geraldine, who has been struck by a golf ball.

“It was the back of my leg, behind my knee. It was black and blue. I got onto the golf club straight away and they said they were going to put up big trees but nothing was done. I’d be dead and buried myself by the time they grow anyway,” said Geraldine, who is calling for nets to be erected on the flight path of the golf balls.

Pictured below is one golf ball found on the day the Leader visited the graveyard.

She says there have been “countless near misses”.

“If nothing is done then somebody will be killed stone dead, 150%. It's getting too close for comfort now,” said Geraldine. Her visit to the graveyard to meet the Leader was the first time she has been back since the incident with her granddaughter.

“I used to go seven days a week but now I haven't been there in over a month and a half. It's just so frightening. Your nerves would be at you back there. I feel guilty not going there as much,” said Geraldine, who flinches whenever she hears the sound of a golfer teeing off.

Her brother Michael said his granddaughter Molly, aged 13 (pictured below right) had a narrow escape while at her great grandparents' grave at Christmas time with her mum Christina and sister Emma, 8.

Molly said the golf ball came in over the wall and “came right by my face”.

“I didn’t even see it. It just came past my face. We brought the golf ball home with us,” said Molly, who got an awful fright.

Michael brought the ball into the golf club the next day.

“I told them it barely missed my granddaughter yesterday and no one can replace a life. I was told they would bring it up at a meeting,” said Michael.

Brother, John, said his wife Ber was just bending down to put flowers on the grave when “a ball came flying just past her head".

“If she hadn’t bent down… She always says my late mother told her to bend down," said John, who adds that it is a “health and safety issue”.

Some family members have taken to putting on helmets before they go in the gates of the graveyard.

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Limerick Live contacted Adare Manor Golf Club on landline and mobile phone numbers and by email to request a response to the family’s concerns. There has been no response to date.

It was thought that the OPW was responsible for St Nicholas but a spokesperson said it was not under their remit.  The Church of Ireland Diocese of Limerick, Killaloe & Ardfert confirmed the cemetery “comes under the stewardship of Adare Manor Golf Club”.