St Mary’s in Thurles, County Tipperary dates back to 1292. It contains a garden with a series of memorials, including the original one, opened in 2000 to honour the 72 men who died in the Great War of 1914 to 1918. In 2001 a second memorial was unveiled to the memory of the nine Irish soldiers killed in the Niamba ambush in the Congo in November 1960. And on Easter Sunday 2003, the third memorial was unveiled in memory of all the Thurles men and women who took part in the fight for Irish independence.
Other memorials are for Tom Semple, Irish soldiers killed in the service of peace with the UN, and members of the An Garda Síochána who lost their lives in the line of duty.