CO-KSNG-0255

Record Date: 
11 December 2012
Exact wording of epitaph: 

NO INSCRIPTION

Memorial Type: 
Headstone
Grave location
County: 
Latitude: 
52.122728055556
Longitude: 
-8.7077030555556
People commemorated: 
Name: 
Sarah
Surname: 
Curran
Date of birth - year: 
1782
Date of death - day: 
5
Date of death - month: 
May
Date of death - year: 
1808
Age: 
26
Notes: 

Local historians maintain this uninscribed headstone was intended for the grave of Sarah Curran in Newmarket but was deposited  here on its way. A number of reasons are given why this happened.(1) is that there was a mixup between Newberry here and Newmarket, (2) the bearers were warned of an intended ambush and dropped off the headstone  in Newberry which was also a Protestant Churchyard. (3) It was alleged that the headstone was taken without payment and was dropped off here when the police were in hot pursuit. There is no inscription on the headstone but an emblem of a cross and people in Newmarket think it was intended for Sarahs mother who was also called Sarah as an old headstone to Sarah Curran was found buried in Newmarket at her gravesite. 

An interesting version of the storey, as related here by Donie O Sullivan,emerged one day in 2015 when a man visited the cemetry searching for Sarah Currans headstone.When questioned how he was aware such a headstone existed he told the storey of how his great, great  grandmother ,who lived locally, passed on  an incident that had occurred to his grand mother when a headstone destined for Sarah Curran's grave was unloaded from a horse cart at the gates to this cemetery late one evening.Unfortunately it slipped ,fell on the road and the top got  broken off. he maintained he had never seen the headstone and understood it was placed against the boundary fence and had searched for it previously to no avail.When he was shown the headstone the first thing he noticed was rhe broken top and indicated this was exactly what had been described to him by his own grandmother over 50 years ago.This lends credence to the connection with Sarah Curran, how it got broken and why a replacement was provided.