Surveying with feeling
Ardmore graveyard is iconic - the late round tower, the early church and cathedral and the adjacent 8th 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.
This rather unusual crucifixion scene is to be found on a small rectangular headstone located in St. Thomas' medieval graveyard in the parish of Peterswell Co. Galway.
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 20th century Templemore.