Upto recently, I had it in my head that traditionally when a wife died young, she would generally be buried in her own family plot – not the grave of her husband. I cannot recall the source of my understanding but it was firmly rooted and long established – possibly to facilitate the burial of the husband with (possible) future mother of his children,
My meeting with Henry Waters early one morning last July started a serious challenge to what I believed to be the norm. Henry rests in Courthoyle Cemetery in Co. Wexford with two wives who predeceased him. Mary Josephine died in 1957; Mary in 1994; and, Henry in 1996.
Later that day, I was chatting with Alan as to Henry disabusing me of my undertsnding when he told me of a relative whose parents are buried in separate graveyards as her father is buried with his first wife.
Recently, reading Catherine Corliss’ book Belonging, she told of a similar burial arrangement in Tuam.
‘Some time previously, the head of the committee had shown me the grave where Julia Devaney was buried. It was a single plot as her husband was buried with his first wife. It had a cement base with a simple iron cross with her name and age and date of death, which had rusted over time.’
Belonging – A Memoir of Place, Beginnings and One Woman’s Search for Truth and Justice for the Tuam Babies – Catherine Corless
So it stands as 3 – 0 against what I was convinced was tradition – I must try to find out how I came to believe that the body of the young wife returned to her own family.
