Directional signage to grave of Sister Clare Crockett approved
Derry City and Strabane District Council has unveiled plans for directional signage for those wishing to visit the grave of Sister Clare Crockett.
Last year Sister Clare’s family highlighted issues to council, including visitors walking and standing on neighbouring graves, and leaving mementos and souvenirs on the Crockett family grave.
In response, officers installed paths in and around the graves impacted to improve access, along with fencing to prevent walking across or standing on graves.
Members of November’s Environment and Regeneration Committee were informed that the family is now seeking Council assistance with regard to directional signs, both within and to the City Cemetery, directing visitors not familiar with the Cemetery to the site and then, when in the Cemetery, directing them to the grave.
An Officers' Report added: “Officers are presently reviewing the requirements within the Cemetery and will progress with the installation of signage following this review.
“Officers will also engage with DfI with regards to external signage and will advise the family and members in due course with regard to the outcome.”
The Moor Sinn Féin representative, Councillor Aisling Hutton welcomed the news and thanked council staff.
Councillor Hutton concluded that there is a huge appreciation not only from Sister Clare’s sisters, Megan and Shauna, “but also from other stakeholders that are involved in creating this legacy, so I just wanted to extend my thanks to the entire team that have been working on this”.
Clare Crockett entered the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother on August 11, 2001, at the age of 18. She took her first vows on February 18, 2006, taking the religious name of Sr. Clare Maria of the Trinity and the Heart of Mary. She took her perpetual vows on September 8, 2010.
The much-loved Derry nun died on August 16, 2006, after the school in Playa Prieta, Ecuador, which she was teaching in, collapsed during an earthquake.
In the years since then, thousands of people from around the world have expressed their deep devotion to St Clare.
In 2025, Sister Clare Crockett was officially named a Servant of God in a ceremony in Madrid, Spain that saw the cause for her beatification opened.