Blog

Every community survey we work on is different - we follow the same process but every workshop is different because of the people. We worked in Kishkeam, north Cork, last week and the community volunteers were exclusively men. They were almost all farmers so they came and went throughout the day to fix a machine or attend a calving. They had a detailed knowledge of their own family history and also that of their neighbours.

This report is about a training programme organised and funded by the Kilkenny Leader Partnership and is written by Kate Parsons who is part of a Transition Year class run by Ms. Helen O'Connor of Abbey Community College, Co. Kilkenny. The survey is part of a training project funded by Kilkenny Leader Partnership. The students are basing their survey on work by Michael O'Sullivan published in Decies 1994-1997.

Ardmore graveyard is iconic - the late round tower, the early church and cathedral and the adjacent 8^th century beannachán (relic church for St Declan) form a compact group enclosed by a curving road to the west and a stream and glen to the east.

Anybody who has driven the N25 from Rosslare to Cork or Kerry will have passed this graveyard in Killeagh village and it is an Irish gem well worth a visit.

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.