Category: Cemeteries - Reading the Signs

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Leaving His Mark

28/5/2018

I spotted tweets earlier today regarding the formal opening of the former Cork District Model School as the new Courthouse Complex.

There are many photos of the refurbished areas and the new extension – some of the 25,000 replaced bricks

What struck me when the scaffolding came down was not captured in any photograph or clip that I have seen but the mark left of the current generation of craftsmen to remind the future that those in 2017 also assisted its retention.

That April Friday evening, while I was taking my photos, a lady also stopped to look at the newly exposed building. She said that she had gone to school there and was looking forward to being able to look inside.

A few weeks later, in Chetwynd, I was reminded as to the titles I might like on my headstone and wondered if my school or place of employment might be one, probably not for me.

Set in Stone

25/3/2018

I didn’t make it back to the West Cork Stone Symposium. It was on this weekend but time, and life, didn’t allow me a spare day. I did order my chisels from TabulaRasa – I write that more as a rebuke and reminder to self, rather than a piece of information for readers.

When visiting Paris in November 2016, I spotted this engraver adding to the writings on stone surrounding a grave. I could have spent an hour or more just watching. Disneyland was calling for a ten year old so I did not have that luxury, but in the few minutes that I stood and admired, I was struck by the difficulty in the stance of the craftsman; his patience; and, the peace of the cemetery.

Leaving Cimetiére de Montmartre that morning, I remembered when, less than two weeks previous, on another lovely morning, we took time out of the Bank Holiday weekend to visit another cemetery – in Crosshaven when I left puzzled as to the correction made in a headstone.

I have blogged previously as to some stone engraving that might be considered less than perfect. Unlike the headstone at St. Bartholomew’s in Kinneigh, I did not for a moment consider this to be the work of a family relative.

I have on a few occasions pondered why the correction was made and allowed stand. I would have thought that many would have erected a new stone.

Maybe Mr. Porteous was a bit of a joker and wanted the last laugh at those left behind.

Maybe, it was deliberate to prompt passers-by, such as yours truly, to pause a while longer and think of Joseph McNeil Porteous – if so, it worked.

The tweets earlier today on other headstone corrections reminded me again of Joseph Porteous and prompted this rambling.

Seán Ó Ríordáin b. 1916.12.03

3/12/2017

Today’s listing from Stair na hÉireann advised that on this day in 1916, Séan Ó Ríordáin was born.

This prompted a reminder to self to finish the grouping of the very many photographs and start uploading here. I have spent a while this afternoon putting together the different aspects relating to Seán Ó Ríordáin that I have encountered in the past few years – as well as a bit of a distraction on YouTube.

SEE ALL HERE

It has also provided a reminder to get back to the exercise of using the poems of Ó Ríordáin to increase my vocabulary.

A Graveyard Clown

7/9/2017

Clowns were never meant to be funny.

‘People like eccentrics. Therefore they will leave me alone, saying that I am a mad clown.’ –
Vaslav Nijinsky

“I am not crying, but have tears in my heart.”

― Vaslav Nijinsky

I read on twitter this morning that originally, they were masked demons. This has led to a lost half hour of work reading about the dark side of clowns and clowns impersonating the dead at their funerals.

I have even pondered reading my first ever Charles Dickens book, excluding the school enforced Hard Times. No doubt, if spotted in a charity shop, The Pickwick Papers will make it onto my shelves to tempt further.

The photograph that accompanied the tweet this morning reminded me of my escape time at Cimetière de Montmartre in Montmartre last year and this particular clown – a sculpture of Nijinsky.

I was pleasantly surprised at the time with the Clown of God – now I will have to think as to whether it was intended to be pleasant after all.

Registered????

16/8/2017

To what does ‘Registered’ refer, when carved on a headstone?

I was in Kilshannig Cemetery, near Mallow, a few weeks back and noted this headstone to remember Maryanne Turner who died in 1839.

I cannot recall seeing the word ‘Registered’ on a headstone previously.

Maybe some burials were not registered with the church/cemetery authorities.

Maybe not all deaths were registered – or even all births.

Another item has gone onto that ‘TO FIND OUT MORE’ list……..

UPDATE 2017.08.17

Many thanks to John Tierney who provided some education and guidance on Twitter to effect that –

We see if fairly regularly throughout the country - it means they bought and registered the plot with the powers that be - usually the COI.

I think in Garrankennefick (nr Aghada, Cork) there is a "Registered and three foot on either side"

Rock, Paper, Scissors – Sorta

31/5/2017

Rock Smashes Scissors.

Scissors Cuts Paper.

Paper Covers Rock.

Or in this instance, the paper has not yet been pulped and milled. It is still in timber form.
But it is doing its best to cover rock.

Hungry Tree on Constitution Hill

The garden of the Kings Inn in Dublin was a short cut to college for a few years. It was even a location of practical exercises with chains and levels when we made efforts to learn of land surveying.

Our section was to the top of the garden so I never knew of the hungry tree until a few years ago from the Secret Dublin – An Unusual Guide by Pól Ó Conghaile . It is on the ‘To Visit’ list – just to see in person.

Headstone by Seamus Murphy

Headstone by Ken Thomson

Headstone by Seamus Murphy

The North Cork Variety

Work this morning brought me to Ballyhooley and I stole a short time after the meeting to go searching for two Seamus Murphy headstones in the Church of Ireland churchyard cemetery – a Ken Thomson headstone was also spotted.

As I was leaving, I spotted something odd near a tree. It cried out for closer inspection which was given.

The yew tree is very tall. It may well fall within the technical term, ‘huge’. As it has grown, it has devoured the majority of the headstone.

All I can make out is ‘Browne’ who was either a (br)OTHER or (m)OTHER. No further information as to name, date or address has been spared by the tree.

The web reveals that there is a tree with similar taste in carved stonework in St Colmcille’s Cemetery in Swords, Co. Dublin – but overlooking the Blackwater today in Ballyhooley, it was the first time I had seen such a hungry tree.

Patrick Costelloe - from Boolteens to New Zealand

25/4/2017

On Sunday, I was returning from my conversational Irish weekend, happy and relaxed. I decided to go along some roads not before travelled by me. I took a stroll through the cemetery at Kiltallagh, outside Castlemaine.

I met with the name of Patrick Costelloe.
I was particularly struck by the fern. To my recollection, this is the first time that I have seen a CWGC headstone with the New Zealand insignia, for someone that served in the New Zealand forces, and I have seen a few in my cemetery visits. This caused to be pause a while longer.

A tweet today from the Imperial War Museum educated that the Haka was first heard and seen by many in Europe in the fields of World War 1 when performed by New Zealand soldiers. This reminded me of Dave Gallaher.

I knew that Irishmen fought in the armies of very many different countries in World War 1. Dave Gallaher from Donegal was captain of the first All Blacks team to tour in 1905, called the Original All Blacks. He died after the Battle of Broodseinde on October 4th, 1917, shortly before his forty-fourth birthday.

Patrick Costelloe died in September 1915, less than 3 months after departing from Wellington His father was from Boolteens on the Dingle peninsula. He was born in Castlemaine and was single when he died at the age of 25 years. He is remembered on the cenotaph in Auckland.

This morning, the web advised that today is Anzac Day. It is 102 years since the Australian and New Zealand forces landing at Gallipoli. It is also the day upon which New Zealand and Australia commemorates their soldiers who were killed in war, and honours returned servicemen and women.

It has been only two days since I first learned of Patrick Costelloe. I have wondered why he travelled so far from Boolteens.

For Anzac Day, I thought I’d share his name.

From Kilmalkader to Grafton Street

30/3/2017

A short while back, a blog post arrived in my inbox containing a lead photograph of the boat above and I immediately recognised it as being from a headstone at Kilmalkader in Corca Dhuibhne – the two blogs earlier this week, prompted a third.

The carving is on a beautiful and unusual headstone at the bottom of the cemetery, looking out to sea. The wording engraved is a simple message that Dr. Paddy Moriarty, who ministered to the peninsula for 30 years, died on 31 May, 1944.

My interpretation of the boat was escapism, Jonny Baker’s was returning to a safe harbour – there are probably many other interpretations. The engraving was memorable to more than us.

And that was where the blog would have finished until I went searching for more information on Dr Moriarty and, unless there were two Dr. Paddy Moriarty’s on the Dingle peninsula in the 1940’s, the headstone story weaves through Patrick Kavanagh, Raglan Road, a Fianna Fáil minister, and on to Dido.

‘On Raglan Road of an autumn day I saw her first and knew
That her dark hair would weave a snare that I might one day rue’

Raglan Road - Patrick Kavanagh

Dido wrote Grafton Street in memory of her father, who was a nephew of Hilda Moriarty – O’Malley, the dark haired beauty that snared Patrick Kavanagh. The Irish Times said that as ‘a young girl, Dido was obsessed with great-aunt Hilda, the tales of her beauty and her role in Raglan Road’, and that she sung Raglan Road to her father as he was dying.

Hilda Moriarty was a student at U.C.D when Patrick Kavanagh spotted her on Raglan Road – the poem, and song followed. In 1947, she married Donogh O’Malley who went on to be Minister for Education and introduced free post-primary education for all.

In U.C.D., future President, Paddy Hillery, was a classmate. Richard Harris was a friend.

It was Autumn 1944 when Patrick Kavanagh spotted Hilda Moriarty and was smitten. He followed her home to Dingle peninsula, uninvited, that Christmas.

If there was indeed only one Dr Paddy Moriarty, that was the Christmas period that he died, aged 51.

A lovely headstone now has a story attached to it in my head.

‘Hilda was the daughter of Dr Paddy Moriarty who worked as a GP in Dingle, County Kerry. Fellow Kerryman, Con Houlihan, describes Paddy Moriarty as ‘a good doctor and a brave man’. Stormy seas would not deter him from visiting sick patients on the Blaskets or Valentia Island.’

Gary Culliton - Irish Medical Times

‘When Hilda went home to Dingle for Christmas in 1944, Kavanagh followed her. There was no invitation to the Moriarty home, of course. A middle-aged, out of-work journalist and ex-small farmer was not the kind of husband Dr paddy Moriarty envisaged for his beautiful daughter. Kavanagh put up at Kruger Kavanagh’s guesthouse in Dunquin and defrayed his expenses by publishing an article on “My Christmas in Kerry” in the Irish Press.”

Liam Cheasty

Peter O’Neill-Crowley d. 1867.03.31

28/3/2017

On Sunday, I received a text about events in Ballymacoda at 7.30p.m. on Friday next, 31st March, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the death of Peter O’Neill-Crowley in Kilclooney Wood.

There is to be a commemoration at the grave followed by a display of information in the parish hall.

Then this morning’s Irish Examiner had further details of the Peter O’Neill-Crowley Commemoration Weekend including a talk at 5.30 at County Hall on Thursday and commemoration at Kilclooney on Sunday.

I first heard of Peter O’Neill-Crowley only a few years back when I read the name of the bridge near Victoria Cross.

Where Bridges Stand by Antóin O’Callaghan advises that the construction of the bridge commenced in 1820; it was named the George IV Bridge; in 1907 Cork Corporation agreed to change name; but, this change did not happen for a few years. The plaque on the bridge says 1911.

Since first spotting the name on the bridge, his name has appeared on a few plaques and memorials that I have seen.

With the 150th anniversary of his death coming up, I thought it appropriate to the plaques together.

Remembering Thomas Russell

27/3/2017

When looking back through my photographs from Kilmalkader Cemetery for the dramatic masks, I saw that on this day 99 years ago Thomas Russell died. It demanded some web searching.

There is some confusion as to the date of death - Wikipedia says his death was 18th March, 1918; BMH record says 24th March. Both differ from the headstone saying 27th March. He is mentioned in The Clare War Dead by Tom Burnell.

He was teaching Irish at the Sinn Féin Club at Carrigaholt, Co. Clare. He was stabbed and died later that night.

A new name committed to the memory bank.

On 24th March 1918, the usual weekly meeting of the Carrigaholt Sinn Fein Club was in progress. I was there and I was standing at the door. About noon, a knock came to the door which I opened. A British military officer was outside along with some soldiers carrying fixed bayonets. He asked me if I was in charge and I said "Yes". He then inquired if Michael Keane was inside. I again said "Yes". He then asked for Keane who went out to him. The officer then said to me: "You must clear this hall". I asked him what he meant by this action and said that this was a meeting of the Sinn Fein Club which we had a perfect right to hold, that we had been holding meetings Sunday without interference. He thereupon shouted an order to his men to charge and, simultaneously, soldiers with fixed bayonets burst in through the door and formed up into a square in the centre of the room. A military sergeant gave orders to clear the room.

Some of the members got out by the back door. I was still at the front door trying to keep it open as the soldiers had begun to lunge with their bayonets and our people began to stampede. I next felt a bayonet stab in the back which caused me to let go the door, and in a rush out of the building the crowd swept me out into the street. Outside, I heard that Dr. Studdart was in Behan's Hotel and went up to see him. I found him attending to Thomas Russell, a Kerryman who was employed by the Gaelic League as an Irish teacher. Russell had been severely wounded by a bayonet thrust while at the Sinn Fein meeting. Dr. Studdert treated my wound and also those of two others who also had been bayoneted. Russell was -10-S removed to Kilrush Hospital the following morning but died that night. He was buried in Kerry.

BMH Statement of Eamonn Fennell

UPDATE 2018.03.24

Following some recent messages which can be viewed below, you may be interested in the following links:

Radio Kerry has details of the exhibition at Dingle Library which continues until 8th April

An Saol ó Dheas has a piece, as Gaeilge, about Thomas Russell and the commemoration on Easter Saturday 31st March, 2018

A Dramatic Headstone

27/3/2017

This morning, I spotted a retweet mentioning that it was #WorldTheatreDay. It included the image of two masks which reminded me of a headstone in Kilmalkader.

A bright lovely Sunday morning last April, this headstone did cause me to pause and wonder, and smile.

I have not seen the masks on a headstone before or since.

It has proved memorable.

Cadet Cleve Soady

22/3/2017

A while back, I heard at a talk that Cecil Guthrie was the only Auxiliary buried in Ireland.

Today, after hanging around the courthouse for most of the day, I took some chill-out time, and walked through the cemetery at the former Church of Ireland church over the bridge on the way upto Macroom square.

There I read of Cleve Soady who died of wounds suffered at the Coolavokig Ambush, near Baile Mhuirne, on 25th/26th February, 1921 – one of a few (or three) Auxiliaries buried in Ireland.

I wonder how long it will be before I spot another Auxiliary’s headstone…..

Coolavokig Ambush Memorial

The Lord Is My Shepard

21/3/2017

Sunday afforded me the chill out opportunity to visit St. Colman’s Cemetery in Cobh. My search for the headstone carved and engraved by Seamus Murphy was successful.

I stopped my search as I passed this grave.

I even paused as to how the word was actually spelled. I pondered the second ‘h’ but remained convinced that there was definitely no ‘a’.

Did the engraver, seller, or buyer pause at the spelling?

Was it sold cheaply as seller was aware of how to spell ‘Shepherd’?

Maybe I need to take more chill-out time and let these spelling issues pass me by – although I suspect that is just the way I was made and will not change.

An Engraving Riddle – Why?

29/1/2017

On the way back from the mechanic, I spotted a fingerpost for Liscleary Cemetery. I looked at the clock and awarded myself some chill-out time, some cemetery time.

I spotted a little riddle – I do not have an answer, yet.

I have often seen the family name on the reverse side of headstones. I always assumed it was to assist those, approaching from that side, to locate the grave.

I have never seen the family name written on the reverse in a similar style to this with standard letters (O, U, H, L, A, and I); upside-down letters (C, G and B) and mirrored-letters (S and N). I have seen a play on N’s but never so many as this.

Maybe it is a family joke.

Maybe someone in the family is a type-setter or engraver and wanted some fun.

I cannot believe that it was accidental – especially with both N’s and S’s treated similarly.

If the intent was to cause the reader to pause longer at the grave and think of the residents, it succeeded.

Update 2017.01.30

Sharon Slater commented ‘Ones that low on the back were often the names of stonemasons (up here anyway)’

GraveyardDetective told of similar incidence in Harrogate, where he was told by vicar and warden that the stone mason disliked the person named on headstone.

Poor Frank Raw commented that it was ‘Inexperienced youth setting out (backwards) letters for pressing into concrete.’

Update 2017.02.02

I corrected an error in title - An v A

Paris - just like Crosshaven

10/11/2016

Crosshaven

The first time I noted the name of an architect engraved on a headstone was in Crosshaven on the Bank Holiday Monday last week – that is the name engraved as the designer as opposed to the resident.

We went searching for the headstone designed by Seamus Murphy, the only one in St. Patrick’s graveyard in Crosshaven. It was made to mark the grave of former labour T.D., Dan Desmond, who died in 1964. His wife, Eileen, took up residence in 2005, thirty years after Seamus Murphy died.

I very much like the form and the shape of the memorial – appropriate to the proximity to the sea.

Patrick McSweeney was Cork County Architect from 1953 to 1975. I find it interesting to consider how the interaction between two designers may have operated – each having to yield some element of the complete design that they regularly hold in a project.

Paris

Crosshaven