 Memorials to those who died in World war II are not at all common in Catholic Churches. I was surprised to find this memorial in the church at Pallaskenry, Co. Limerick. It is not listed on the Irish War Memorials website so will have to complete the form and submit.
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Timogue Church
‘The commemorative function of monuments was paramount. However, the expression of loss and regret for the dead was inextricably entwined with and, to an extent, secondary to attempts to continue the memory of their owners’ personal and social identities……..  St Michael's Cemetery, Blackrock
 It is over twelve years since I did a blog post on the memorial that reads: Today, in St. Michael’s Cemetery in Blackrock, it was the expression that first caught my attention – ‘Welcome To the Future’. I had spotted the family name of Feehily but when I saw that the first name was Dominic, the internal smile got so wide. It is good to get a reminder that this is not a trial run and to get busy living…..
One Headstone – a few unanswered questions.  Inár gcuimhne go buan – Always remembered The Headstone The Annual Cemetery Mass at Grange was held on Friday evening, 11th July. Many relatives of those buried at Grange, Tullow in County Carlow were at the graveyard in the last few days tidying up the family graves in advance of the Cemetery mass, also known as The Pattern. On Thursday evening, Alan was at Grange to do the final tidy-up for the following evening. He sent me the above photograph. It definitely does not look 105 years old. The blackness of the letters; the use of 11 for November and, particularly, 09 for September; and, the script appearing, to these eyes, to be machine done and not hand-carved all made me wonder as to when the stone was erected. Alan told me that he had not noticed it before. As he was using the rear access road last week, he passed the headstone. This has led to a few hours on Google Streetview and Google Earth. Streetview confirms that the headstone was erected between 2011 and 2019 – the view from intervening years is obscured by headstones. Google Earth provides a history of the extension of the graveyard. Between Apil 2013 and June 2013, the graveyard was extended into the field to the rear. The rear access road appears to have been constructed between July 2021 and August 2022. As for the headstone to John Gaughan, it appears to have been erected between May 2020 and July 2021 – a period that includes the 100 year anniversary of the death of John Gaughan. The Death After seeing what appeared to be a new-ish headstone, my next thought, based upon the year of death, was a question as to whether John Gaughan, was a victim of the Irish War of Independence – he was. Aged 34, he had been an Irish teacher and was Roman Catholic. “From Belmullet, Constable Gaughan joined the RIC in 1908, stationed in Wicklow and later in Tullow, Carlow. His father secured £760 compensation……. Intimidation
I sense a search for the RIC General Personnel Register to try to find out if John Gaughan cited any reason in his resignation letter. Remembrance During my Local History course some years back, page 105 of Clodagh Tait’s book was the reference cited in the most of my essays. “By choosing an identity from the most acceptable elements of one’s past, present and future, and rendering this in stone, a medium which by its very nature could convey added veracity, solidity and permanency, reality could be created and controlled by the patron. Moreover, once reality is constructed in this manner, monuments allow for no doubt or argument. Their owners may be denounced or discredited, but monuments will continue to proclaim their own brand of truth. This is why contemporaries occasionally found it necessary to destroy monuments. The propaganda element inherent in them could not be countered in any other way.” I have a spreadsheet of memorials that have been damaged, removed, or covered in red paint. Those associated with the slave trade may be the category in the recent memory of many. Many memorials in Ireland to representatives of the Crown would have been an earlier category. But there are many others – I did a blog post a few years back linking Charlie Kerins, Queen Victoria and Fiona Pender: Donal Fallon’s podcast on Mount Jerome cemetery in Dublin educated that the headstone to Martin Cahill, The General, was repeatedly smashed to pieces and he now resides in an unmarked grave (0:41.40).
“Tobias O’Sullivan is buried as an Irish policemen under the British Empire and as such is destined to be officially ‘unremembered’ in a newly independent Irish state. The only memorials for men like O’Sullivan will exist in quiet homes – a photograph or keepsake on the mantle piece beside a votive candle; the bloodstained tunic he was wearing when he was shot, kept in a private place until his widow has died and eventually it vanishes. These Irishmen who killed and were killed by other Irishmen in the War of Independence are not commemorated or publicly mourned.” Patrick Pearse’s oration at the burial of O’Donovan Rossa concludes with the oft-quoted “They think that they have foreseen everything, think that they have provided against everything; but the fools, the fools, the fools! — they have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace” Annual Commemorations and parades to the Manchester Martyrs and others were a rallying call of togetherness. All commemoration is selective – remembering one over another – one person; one group; or, one ideology. If uncommemorated, if not written in stone, chances are significantly reduced that one might be considered a ‘martyred dead’ who would might be called upon. A monument exists to Gardai who died in service since 1922. There is an annual Garda Memorial Day. Different times. The first Famine memorial erected in Ireland did not happen until after a hundred years. Irish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War; those buried in Cillíní around the country; residents of Mother & Baby Homes were not commemorated for some years. Garda Henry Phelan was the first member of An Garda Síochána to be killed – shot by Anti-Treaty IRA in 1922, commemorated in Mullinahone 100 years later. I sit here wondering if the intimidation of the time extended to pressure on the family of John Gaughan not to erect a headstone UPDATE 2025.07.14 Brian Hughes’ article on RTE Brainstorm entitled Outcasts: how Ireland shunned the R.I.C. and their families is worth a read
Last week, driving home, I took some me time and visited a cemetery that I had not been in previously. St Fergal’s Cemetery in Ballacolla is relatively new with just 46 names recorded on the headstones – the oldest is on the front row, dated 1989. A number of headstones include photographs of those residing in the graves but it was the photograph of Fergus Hanlon that paused my ramble – that face looked familiar. I should not, in hindsight, be surprised that my recording of roadside memorials and my walks through graveyards should occasionally overlap. It doesn’t happen often but it did last week. Yesterday, I went searching through folders of photographs. It was in 2015 that I stopped at the memorial on the R445 outside Portlaoise that remembers Matthew Peters, Aoife Carroll, Raymond Cuddy, Lorraine Bowe, and Fergal Hanlon. The memorial contains a photograph of each of the five who died twenty seven years ago today. 
Today, for the first time that I can recall, I saw a Commemorative Sticker. Commemorative roadside memorials, yes - I have recorded over a thousand. Commemorative benches, yes – becoming much more evident. R.I.P. t-shirts I learnt of earlier this year from Dr. Kami Fletcher’s interview on the Death Studies Podcast (21:20) . I saw a video clip of a funeral in Carlow earlier this year and noted that t-shirts of the deceased had arrived in Ireland. But a sticker – not until today – and it was by chance and curiosity. I have been photographing many stickers on display in the public realm – but do not have any image of a Commemoration Sticker. A web search for ‘Commemoration Stickers’ will confirm that they are a thing. ‘In Memory Decals’ similarly throws up lots of options. I did not know one could purchase Craig Breen Memorial Stickers Vinyl decal with proceeds going to the Irish Motorsport Benevolent Fund. Proceeds from Manus Kelly Memorial Sticker go towards Donegal Downs Syndrome.  Stuck in traffic on Summerhill this afternoon, I noted that a pedestrian stopped in his tracks and went to look at something in/on a car rear window. That was enough of a prompt for the direction of the route for the dog walk this evening. It was then that I learnt of Mathew Troy, who died earlier this year. He was a Boston Firefighter – and 10 was the number on his fire hat, which I understand to be his Engine Company. Aged 30, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 Liver Cancer. He died aged 32. Occupational Cancer. Tonight’s viewing has been on Firefighter Cancer – a term also new to me. BURNED: Protecting Our Protectors is well worth a half-hour of your time. Today, I learnt something new but know that there is much more to learn. Why there is an In Memory Decal for Mat Troy, I do not know. Why there is a sticker on a 152-C car that was parked on Summerhill, I definitely do not know. 
Yesterday was the 23rd anniversary of the crash of flight AA587. A Bluesky post from Christopher P. Hood linked to his article on the memorial and the crash. I have spent some time online looking at different images of the memorial and the commemoration events. The memorial has gone on my TO VISIT map – not sure I’ll ever get to New York again, but it is on the map just in case. However, it is the apparent random order of the names recorded on the memorial which has me intrigued. It sent me on a little investigation that will no doubt lead to much more time and episodes of Dark Tourism, particularly commemoration of transportation crashes. Rockaway Memorial Park – Flight AA587 Appears that there is a random order of names of the dead. Buttevant Train Crash – 1st August, 1980 The names of the 18 who died are not listed alphabetically – a random order. Pan-Am Flight 1-10 – 15th April, 1948 Grave at Drumcliffe, Ennis lists the passengers in alphabetical order but the crew in a seniority ranking ‘Frank Carl Jakel, aged 35, Captain Pilot, married, from New Hyde Park, New York Aer India Flight 182 – 23rd June 1985 Passengers are listed on the memorial at Ahakista in alphabetical order. The 22 crew are not listed alphabetically. The New York Times printed the job of each crew member. Putting them in the order of the memorial does appear to signify a grade ranking system – similar to Pan-Am NARENDRA. H. S., captain Non-Transportation Disasters
The various memorials to those who died at Hillsborough; as well as those to the Stardust and the Dromcollogher Cinema Fire all appear to list in alphabetical order. Hopefully my sample size for this study will increase with visits over time.  Charlie Kerins remains the last I.R.A. member to be condemned to death by the state and executed. That was on 1st December, 1944. A plaque to commemorate Charlie Kerins was erected at Easter 1947 and removed in May 1947 and was subsequently replaced.
Memorials that have been damaged, removed or vandalised have been an interest of mine for some years. When doing the Local History course, I cited page 105 of Clodagh Tait’s book in more than two or three essays – ‘Tait suggests that the propaganda effect of some memorials and statues could not be overcome, except by their removal.’ Queen Victoria’s statue at the Aula Maxima in U.C.C. was removed and replaced with one of St. Finbarr. It was buried for over 60 years before going back on display. Streetsigns bearing the name Victoria were painted over in recent years. The statue of Victoria that stood at Dáil Éireann was removed and spent a long time in storage before being sent to Australia. Victoria’s was not the only memorial to be removed from the lawn of Leinster House. A cenotaph was erected in 1923 and had two panels, one commemorating Arthur Griffith: the other commemorating Michael Collins. This temporary structure deteriorated for many years before being replaced at a different location at Leinster House. My own list of memorials damaged or removed has reached 65 and the categories of those commemorated varies widely.
Back to the wall of St Iberius’s Church at Broadway in Co. Wexford. A plaque to Fiona Sinnott was removed the night before its planned unveiling in 2008. A replacement plaque was subsequently also removed. The adhesive/render is all that remains. A plaque was erected at Kilmore Quay in 2018.  
“When Grange closed in the 1950s, a communal decision was taken to maintain the ancient ritual and a new sceach between Kilmore village and the new cemetery was blessed and commissioned to carry the crosses for funeral generations. Since then hundreds of funerals have stopped at the crossroads and paused for a moment so that grieving families and friends can leave a wooden cross there to honour the memory of their loved ones and to continue our of most scared customs.”
“We may ask what connection is there between the crosses which Miss Stokes found near Cong, those she saw near the mouth of the Somme, and those to be still seen in the parish of Kilmore ? 
 R532 - Buttevant to Kildorrery, Co. Cork This morning, I started filing away some of my photographs, a long overdue task. I got as far back as late July and this roadside Calvary cross on the Buttevant to Kildorrery road (R532). The filing of the photographs stopped as the vague recollections stirred.  Calvary Cross locations marked in blue I was correct in thinking that I had another in the Grotto folder named Wallstown. Only when comparing the two did other coincidences come forth: The majority of roadside grottos or religious statues are to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Calvary crosses are not nearly as common. When I eventually get around to populating the full database, I will be able to give the percentage but suspect it will be in low single digits. 1954 was a Marian Year as is regularly noted on the roadside shrines. 1932 is not as common – another for the database recording. When plotting the crosses on the map, they are not very far apart. They both mention Julia M. Crowley and 1932. She erected, or caused erected, the Calvary Cross on the N73. She died on 27th September and the Calvary Cross on the R532 was erected in her memory – interestingly, this one has statues of three others praying and remembering, whereas the earlier one does not. Julia M. Crowley of Wallstown Castle has gone onto the To Find Out More list……
 Coolcower, Macroom, Co. Cork - March 2015 Trawling through Twitter this morning, I spotted a tweet from Survivors Unite at Last in which she included a copy of her mothers’s birth certificate. This cert records the profession of her maternal grandfather as a Tinsmith. Very many trades are dwindling in numbers or disappearing completely. Tinsmith is definitely in that category. Automation and machinery has had its impact, so too has plastic.
The tweet reminded me of my journey west in early July. Just over Two-Mile Bridge on the Macroom side at Coolcower, the civil engineering works were well advanced for the construction of the Macroom- bypass. But just as one cannot make an omelette without cracking eggs, serious muck-shifting cannot be done without some disturbance. I stopped early that morning to record that another reference to Tinsmith had been cast aside to the memory banks. Many, but not all, memorials (and grottos) have been relocated and repositioned after roadworks. Only time will tell if the memorial to Tinsmith Danny Hourigan is to be reinstated. UPDATE 2022.03.08 Last Saturday, March 4th, saw me on the road to Baile Mhuirne. It was my first time travelling on the Macroom by-pass, the bit that is open at least. Was good to see that the memorial to Danny Hourigan has been reinstated
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