Some Can Be Read…

Walking the church ruins of Castletown in County Limerick during our recent trip to Ireland, my husband and I came upon just the right conditions to capture some century-old engravings. Just before arriving, when we drove through tiny Ballyagran, the townland and Catholic parish from which my husband’s second great-granduncle William Flanagan had once proudly proclaimed his heritage, we encountered a typical brief Irish drizzle. By the time we stopped to ask for directions and drive further up the lane to the cemetery, the rain had stopped, but the sky was still gloomily overcast. Perfect, it turned out, for taking photographs in a graveyard.

While neither of us is related to the subjects of these memorials, just as yesterday, I want to share what we found. Maybe some others will find themselves led here through a fortunate exchange on Google and see these photos as beneficial for their own family history research.

Erected by

John McCann of Caherhennessy

In memory of his father

Bartholomew McCann

Who died 15^th of July 1901

Aged 84 years

And of his mother

Catherine McCann

Who died 2^nd of December 1885

Aged 74 years

May they rest in peace

Mary Bridget Biggane

Gortroe

Died June 9, 1949

Some of the headstones provide guidance in piecing together two or three generations of family trees. Some entries, however, introduce their own mysteries. How, for instance, is Mary Bridget Biggane connected to the McCann family? By the different appearance of the engraving of her name in comparison to the previous entries, it seems as if this addition is an afterthought. Could it be a married daughter? Almost an entire lifetime removed from her predecessors, perhaps it is more realistic to suppose she was a grandchild.

And yet, others here in Ireland go so far beyond the kind of expectations I’ve learned to have, coming from the perspective of someone used to wandering the cemeteries of my own country. Complete with dates and place names, some stones are an abbreviated family history in engraved format, preserved in one public place for all to read and know.

Erected by

John Chawke and his children

In sad and loving memory

Of his wife and their mother

Who departed this life

At Kilmeedy

April 16^th 1913

Aged 72 years

John died Oct 19 1920

James Fitzgerald died March 3 1948

Bridget Fitzgerald (nee Chawke) died Feb 17 1962

Catherine Fitzgerald died Aug 1 1972

John Fitzgerald died July 5 1995

Photographs courtesy Chris Stevens.