‘While paying my respects, tears start to pour down my face and I make my exit. The display of intense emotion feels out of place’

I live near a big lifeless graveyard in Adelaide called Cheltenham Cemetery. I consider it lifeless because a year since moving to the area in the South Australian capital’s western suburbs, I’ve seen only a handful of visitors and for a cemetery with over 32,000 burial plots, that strikes me as exceptionally few.

An Irishman in Australia on the loneliness of grief away from home Waverley Cemetery in Sydney, Australia. Photo: Getty I live near a big lifeless graveyard in Adelaide called Cheltenham Cemetery. I consider it lifeless because a year since moving to the area in the South Australian capital’s western suburbs, I’ve seen only a handful of visitors and for a cemetery with over 32,000 burial plots, that strikes me as exceptionally few.

I regularly pass by during dog walks, coffee runs and wretched attempts at jogging at various times and in various elements. I scan the site for movement across vast rows of grey, black and russet headstones – some tall and proud with marble, others hidden and low, in a scene coloured with incompatibility. Join the Irish Independent WhatsApp channel Stay up to date with all the latest news.