Great Famine
An Sean Phobal had a much greater population before the famine than it does now. In many ways, it has never recovered, Most notably in the seaside glens along the coast where many towns-land villages once existed Tóin Tí Thaidhg, Baile Mhic Airt íoctarach, and Baile na hAirde to name but a few. Immigration and death ridded these glens of a great majority of their human inhabitants. Plenty of ruined Boháns or cottages are still visible to the eye after years of vegetation overgrowth in these glens. Relig An tSleibh Graveyard is Famine time graveyard in An tSean Phobail. This land is situated about 2½ miles south-west of Dungarvan. In July 1847, the Clerk was directed to advertise for contractors to erect a stone wall around the site, four feet high and five feet wide, faced with stones on both sides ’the stones to be laid on edge.’ Two men were employed assisted by the workhouse inmates. On 28 August William Veale’s tender to make an iron gate 5½ feet high by 8 feet wide for 14 shillings was accepted. The graveyard was to be ready in a matter of weeks.In early September the Guardians ordered that any paupers who died were to be buried in the new graveyard for Grange and Ardmore until the site at Slievegrine was opened. n the early 1860s some members of the Board of Guardians felt that a small monument should be erected at Slievegrine to commemorate those buried there, but nothing came of the idea. The subject came up again in August 1866 when it was proposed that a monument should be erected at a cost not exceeding £50. Denis McGrath’s plan for the monument was accepted in August 1866 but the Commissioners objected once again. The plan was eventually dropped, probably because of the opposition from the Commissioners. According to Seamus Clandillon writing in 1925 a wooden cross marked the site. He recalled the story of a woman who was being taken for burial to Reilig An tSléibhe who regained consciousness and lived to a good old age. It was not until 1953 that a monument was finally erected at Slievegrine. The unveiling took place as part of the celebrations of the An Tostal festival in Dungarvan on Sunday 19 April 1953. This monument consists of a large plain limestone cross with inscriptions in Irish and English. However, the main part of the inscription refers to the Marian Year with the reference to the Famine victims given less emphasis. On 20 August 1995 a commemorative mass was celebrated at Reilig An tSléibhe by Dr. William Lee, Bishop of Waterford and Lismore. A moving recital of Na Prataí Dubha was given by Peig, Bean Uí Reagáin. The old limestone cross was cleaned and a more fitting memorial to those buried there was unveiled.
Read more about this topic: An Seanphobal, History
Famous quotes containing the word famine:
“I knew the poor,
I knew the hideous death they die,
when famine lays its bleak hand on the door;
I knew the rich,
sated with merriment,
who yet are sad.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)
“From the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”
—Charles Darwin (1809–1882)