Saint Declan's grave, Ardmore, Co. Waterford, is potentially the oldest known extant Christian grave in Ireland. A site of pilgrimage since the Early Medieval period it is now enclosed in a small stone building originally built as a 9th century shrine chapel (An Beannacháin).
This is the script of a talk given by John Tierney on Sunday 6th July 2025 , in Douro village, Ontario as part of the Douro 200th Anniversary of the Peter Robinson Settement which brought around 500 Irish families from southern Ireland to northern Ontario. Those families put down deep roots in the area while also spreading across the rest of the continent. John was invited by the Douro 200th Anniversary committee to attend, survey their local cemeteries, and give this talk.
2023
ardmore2023toura7finalweblinks.pdf
A pocket sized trail for eight points of interest (POI) in Ardmore roundtower graveyard developed as part of the Incultum project with Ardmore Tidy Towns.
2024 Version
Community archaeology is all about relationships. It takes time to build a relationship and effort to maintain it. For a heritage project relationship to work, to sustain, there must be equal benefits for each participant. In graveyard surveys the Historic Graves team look to publish good quality survey data while learning about a new place. Our participating groups look to learn a new skill (graveyard survey) and to do real work.
Decency has come up on this website before when discussing past and present burial practices. It seems an archaic term; reminds me of the way our teacher's used to talk in school in the 70s and 80s, and come to think of it, the word 'decent' pronounced 'daycent' was regularly used by Cork teenagers in those days, meaning good or great. 'We're playing Carrigaline in the semi-final!' 'Daycent, we beat them last time!'. But when used in the context of burial it refers to respectful treatment of the dead.
Meath is the middle province of Early Medieval Ireland, and Meath headstones are made of some of best limestone and some of the best carved stones in the country.
Meath County Council kindly funded our survey of Castlekeeran graveyard with the Castlekeeran Graveyard Committee and we held a public training day in the graveyard during Heritage Week 2018.
Waterford is a funny county. For some visitors it is the bit between the ferry and West Cork, or Kerry. For others it is on the way to the Cliff Hotel in Ardmore, West Waterford. For many it is a hidden gem.
But that's the old story. The ‘scéal nua’ is the Waterford Greenway which in 2-3 years has transformed tourism in the county. The Greenway is a 46km off-road walking and cycling trail along the old Waterford to Dungarvan railway line.
