The collection of headstone and tombstone inscriptions of the Parish continues apace. In the last offering I neglected to mention the Long Point where it is suggested that therein lie, unmarked, many victims of famine and fever. Let us hope they are at peace.
When the stones were being photographed for the Internet we were ably provided with archaeological and technical assistance from John and Maurizio of Eachtra. For this we are grateful to Secad and offer our sincere thanks.
Two members of the team, Eddie and Jimmy are now, in their own right, masters of the technical aspects of the project.
As a matter of interest it is worth noting that a graveyard is a burial ground that has a church in it e.g. Corkbeg and a cemetery is a burial ground without a church e.g. All Saints.
I recently made a discovery while abroad that I hadn’t known about before and that is: In cemeteries in some parts of the world the dead are buried over ground in vaults (nichos) . Not a bad idea!
Here are a few more interesting inscriptions and verses which we have uncovered locally.
Here Lieth the body of the Rev
Timothy McCarty who departed
This life July the 8th 1783 Aged 69 years
May his soul rest in peace through the
Mercy of God Amen
Father McCarty was Parish Priest of Aghada from 1766-1783.
I H S
G
A A
By the Gaels of Aghada
In loving memory
Of their old comrade
William O’Mahony
Of Banard
Who lost his life at Glenmore
On the 15th of March 1905
Aged 28 years
R.I.P.
William was captain of the Aghada hurling team and was drowned with two of his colleagues at Glenmore.
+
I H S
ABIGAIL WE
LSH DEPARTED
THIS LIFE NO
VEMBER THE
15 1771 AGED
54 YEARS
ERECTED
BY PHILIP
WELSH
+
I H S
Here Lyeth
The body of Neil
Connery who
Departed this
Life the fovrt
Day of Jany
Anno Dom
1716
This is the oldest stone in Garranekinnefeake and while the oldest stone in the parish is in Aghada dated 1711 there are more stones in the 1700’s here than any of the other burial grounds.
Ar son Dé a Cháirde!
agus ar uct Iosa Criost
deinig guide
ar anam BHRIGDE SCIUR a fuair bás
an 3ad lá fichid de Júil 1908
agus I sé bliana agus tri fichid
ar anam a h-ua SEÁNIN SABEGÁN
a fuair bás an t-8ad lá dAbrán 1903
agus é cuig bliana deag
A Mhuire Mhátair guid orta agus
orainn go léir
Of the 2000 stones which we have read this is the only one written in Irish
COSGROVE
This monument was erected to commemorate
SERGEANT WILLIAM COSGROVE V.C.
The Royal Munster Fusiliers
who died on 14. July 1936 at Queen Alexandra
Military Hospital Millbank London aged 48 years
The deed that gained him the highest award for bravery
was performed at Gallipoli. 26 April 1915. when he tore
away the barbed wire barricades that were impassable
destructions. Despite terrific gunfire concentrated
on him by the enemy and thereby saved his batallion
who were exposed to the fate of annihilation otherwise
His comrades of the regiment and of the British
and Allied forces remember him and his deed
with everlasting gratitude.
We are led to believe that there is another V C here –Patrick Green originally from Ballinasloe but we haven’t found his grave. He was born in 1824 and died on July 19th 1889.
Erected
by the
Nationalists of Imokilly
To the memory
Of
Denis Kelly
Ballyshane
Died 19th March 1892
Aged 47 years
R I P
Denis Kelly Ballyshane, 1845-1892 was a Colonel in the Fenian National movement in East Cork.
In Loving Memory of
Maurice John Penrose Fitzgerald
Lieut. In the Queen’s
Royal West Surrey Regiment
Died 26th July 1916
of wounds received in the Battle of the Somme
July 1916 aged 22
Youngest and dearly loved son of
James and Louisa Penrose Fitzgerald
of Midleton
Maurice John’s brother Herbert James was
killed at Les Boeufs on 12th Oct 1916
aged 25.
He is remembered at Thiepval Memorial.
Both young men are also commemorated
on a plaque in St. Michael and All the Angeles Church in Corkbeg.
One family paid a big price.
God be good to them all.
Note:
The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916. The memorial also serves as an Anglo-French Battle Memorial in recognition of the joint nature of the 1916 offensive and a small cemetery containing equal numbers of Commonwealth and French graves lies at the foot of the memorial. The memorial, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, was built between 1928 and 1932.
