Residents of the town of Shannon, Co Clare, have come of age and are to get their own graveyard. Shannon Development, the regional development company, has signed a contract for the sale of 16 acres at Illaunamanagh Point, on the edge of the town, to Clare County Council for a 124-grave cemetery.
Illaunamanagh means "Monk's Island" and is a former island which arose from the mudflats. The town has grown out of the graveyard it shares with the village of Newmarket-on-Fergus.
The town began life in 1961 when 147 flats were built to house people working in the local industrial estate, according to Mr Brian Callanan, Shannon Development's planning officer, whose book, Ireland's Shannon Story - A Case Study of Local and Regional Development, was published recently.
According to Mr Callanan, it was proposed in 1957 to give the airport authority the wider functions of developing traffic, tourism and air freight in the context of a free trade zone.
The Shannon Free Airport Development Company (SFADCo), now Shannon Development, was established two years later. Mr Callanan highlights the importance of "vision building" as part of the development process.
"As employment began to grow at Shannon, the vision came to be justified. Acceptance and support grew as concrete and tangible benefits emerged."
Tourism projects included the opening of Bunratty Castle to visitors in 1960, the establishment of medieval banquets there in 1962, and in the same year plans were prepared for the development of the folk park alongside it.
The development of Shannon town occurred against a debate that the centres at Ennis and Limerick, both 15 miles away, should be developed. But by 1966, over 400 houses had been completed and a brewery was approached to establish a pub.
Planning changed, too, from a grid of straight roads and blocks of houses to a pattern in sympathy with the landscape, a process which Mr Callanan calls the "management of uncertainty".
By 1970 the population had reached more than 3,000, with almost all of the housing provided by SFADCo, although it subsequently began to disengage from its housing role. Today the town has more than 11,000 inhabitants.