John Tierney's blog

Malakey McAuliffe lived to the ripe old age of 170 - or maybe an all too short 17 years. Or was he 70?

In the 'old section' of Clonfert graveyard (in the SW corner) is a large group of 18th and 19th century headstones and burial monuments. One of them has a rare survival of the 'crown of thorns' - the crown of thorns is commonly seen on headstones further north in Ireland but I can think of only two examples in Cork, Limerick, Tipperary.

A question often asked during graveyard surveys is ‘how much did a funeral cost in the past?’ - to which I’d often reply that we need to see a undertaker’s account books to get an answer. The first undertaker’s accounts I have seen were shown to me by C J Destelle-Roe of North Tipperary and that account book contained a lot of important clues to understanding early 20^th century Templemore.

There could be human burials anywhere within the site of the Tuam Union Workhouse -  especially dating to the mid-nineteenth century before the formal burial ground was established in

This post is written in the interests of taking a measured archaeological approach to the current

We will be heading to the Necropolis in Glasgow this coming weekend (24^th

Paddy Carroll and Ann Scully have been working on a survey of the historic graveyard in Tullore, Laois for the last 4 years or so.

We will be providing training to community groups and individuals in Tang, Westmeath on the 27th, 28th, 29th March and 3rd, 4th, 5th April. The project is organised by Tang Muintir Community Council and funded by Westmeath Community Development.

Jacinta was on the Moncrieff Show on Newstalk (http://www.newstalk.ie/play