Unlike older cemeteries, St. Finbarr's was professionally laid out with numbered pathways and wide avenues.

Among those buried at St. Finbarr's Cemetery are hurler and Taoiseach Jack Lynch; the antiquarian Richard Rolt Brash who was among the first to decipher writing in the ancient Ogham writing style; the English composer Sir Arnold Bax; and Cork's first Lord Mayor Daniel Hegarty.

However, during this attempt there was an explosion which killed Swanton and severely injured Madden (who lost an eye and a leg).

Commemorations of the 1916 Rising are held annually, by various groups, at the Republican Plot on Easter Sunday.

It also contains a mass grave containing the remains of 72 women who died at St Vincent's Magdalene Laundry on Peacock Lane in Cork.