Tombstone Tuesday: Clinch, Coleman, Walsh family grave: Swords, County Dublin

Erected by

Mrs. Jane Walsh

of Swords

In Memory of her beloved mother

Catherine Clinch

who died June 30th 1948

aged 73 years

Also her Brother James Clinch

died Nov. 6th 1853

aged 28 yrs.

And her father Fredrick Clinch

died Septr. 15th 1866 aged 90 years.

The above named Mrs. Jane Walsh

died July 6th 1876 aged 80 years.

Also Joseph Christopher Coleman

who died 22nd Feb 1954 aged 64 years

and his wife Catherine Coleman

died 1st Jan 1966 aged 77 yrs.

Their son Joseph Coleman

died 7th April 1994 aged 67 yrs.

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©Copyright J.Geraghty-Gorman 2010.

Matrilineal Monday: From my matrilineal tree: Kettle, Fitzpatrick, and Ward graves: Swords, County Dublin, Ireland

Sacred
To the memory of
Thomas Kettle of Drynam.
Who died 22nd September 1871
aged 72 years.
And his beloved wife Alice who died
24th September 1855 aged 55 years.
Also their beloved daughter
Mrs. Mary Fitzpatrick
who died 23rd April 1871 aged 39 years.
R. I. P.

Andrew J. Kettle 1833-1916

I. H. S.
In Memoriam
Charles Stewart Kettle
Newtown, St. Margaret's County Dublin
died 29 June 1952.
Also his beloved wife
Beda
died 11 June 1956
And his brother
Dr. Laurence J. Kettle
died 27th August 1960.
And his sister
Catherine Kettle
died 13 September 1967.

In loving memory of
my dear sister Teresa Fitzpatrick
died 25 December 1929 Swords.
Also her sister Alice Ward
died 27 May 1952 aged 91 years.

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All Materials ©Copyright J.Geraghty-Gorman 2010.

Wordless Wednesday: Imploring Angel

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All photographs ©Copyright J.Geraghty-Gorman 2010.

Tombstone Tuesday: Order of Discalced Carmelites: Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, Ireland

Discalced Carmelite Friars are men who follow a consecrated way of life inspired by the Rule of Saint Albert, as it was interpreted by Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint John of the Cross. The word 'discalced' comes from the Latin 'discalceatus' which literally translates to shoeless. In this case it is used to denote membership in a community governed by strict practice and renunciation of worldly comforts. A distinctive feature of the Discalced Carmelite way of life is the focus on meditative prayer. In addition to daily Mass and Divine Office, the friars spend two hours in personal prayer each day. They live in very small communities, usually comprised of only four to six people.

The mandate of the Carmelite Friars is to serve the larger community principally by helping people with their practice of prayer, whether they pray regularly or have forgotten how to pray. In the words of the Friars: "We try to give our celebration of sacraments or the way we run our parishes a prayerful quality that is distinctive. We invite people to join us in our prayer. We pray with and for people. We give individual accompaniment and retreats and courses on prayer."

For more information visit the Website for Discalced Carmelite Friars

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All Photographs ©Copyright J.Geraghty-Gorman 2010

William Carleton: a novelist who intimately knew the lives of his characters

It could be said that Irish novelist William Carleton wrote not from imagination, but from experience. Born into humble surroundings on 4 March 1794 in the town of Prillisk, Clogher, County Tyrone, it is said that his skill in recounting peasant life was due to his experience of it. His father was a tenant farmer, an unsuccessful one, and in order to survive he had to move his family from farm to farm. As a Catholic child in British ruled Ireland, Carleton was forbidden to attend school, and so he received his primary education in the hedge school system. As a teenager he did receive formal education at the Classical Schools at Donagh and Glaslough in north County Monaghan.

Although he wrote several works, the best known of these is Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry. The book is described as "a tableau of the life of the country people of the north of Ireland before the famines of the 1840s altered their pattern of existence forever." Following the publication of this book he published other novels including Fardorougha the Miser (1839), Valentine McClutchy (1845), The Black Prophet (1847), The Emigrants of Ahadarra (1848), The Tithe Proctor (1849), and The Squanders of Castle Squander (1852). In The Squanders of Castle Squander Carleton touches on many of the issues affecting the Ireland he knew, such as the influence of the Church, landlordism, poverty, famine, and emigration.

He died at Sandford, County Dublin 30 January 1869, and is interred in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Harold's Cross, Dublin.

His wife must have had a presentiment in inscribing on his stone that he was "one whose memory needs neither graven stone nor sculptured marble to preserve it from oblivion". In fact, every summer since 1992 County Tyrone has played host to the William Carleton Summer School, one of Ireland’s most significant literary festivals. Their mandate is to celebrate the life and writings of the novelist William Carleton, 1794-1869. The School is held from the first Monday in August until the Friday of the same week in the district which Carleton knew best, the Clogher Valley.

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©Copyright J.Geraghty-Gorman 2010.

Wordless Wednesday, almost: Robert Whitby Crips, a mother's loss

The inscription reads:

This tomb is erected by his mother

In remembrance of a beloved and deeply lamented son

Robert Whitby Crips

An affectionate but mournful tribute

To the worth and excellence of him whose memory

Lives in her heart.

"Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God"

The memory of the just is blessed

Cusack Family Vault: Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin, Ireland

Interred within this impressive vault of the classical style are the following members of the Cusack Family

JAMES WILLIAM CUSACK M.D.: born 26 May 1788, died 25 September 1861. A highly respected doctor and contemporary of William Wilde (father of Oscar).

The small black tablet on the tomb face reads: Here rest in God | JAMES WILLIAM CUSACK
died 25 Sept 1861 aged 73 | FRANCES, his wife died 18 Nov. 1880 aged 88 |
THOMAS BERNARD CUSACK died 14 Feb. 1864 aged 32 | HENRY THOMAS CUSACK died 6
Jan. 1865 aged 44 | SOPHIA ANNE his wife died 10 Feb. 1877 aged 50 | ATHANASIUS
FRANCIS their son died 5 Jan. 1887 aged 31 | JAMES WILLIAM CUSACK died 5 Oct
1868 aged 44 | Sir RALPH SMITH CUSACK Kntd died 3 Mar 1910 aged 88 | JAMES
WILLIAM his son died 28 Oct. 1886 aged 34 | “Thou will keep them in perfect
peace”.

The white tablet on the base reads: KATHLEEN PATRICIA JOBSON died 16th
Oct. 1919 aged 42 | “ He giveth his beloved sleep”. | BESSIE WATSON CUSACK died
26th Aug. 1922 aged 70 | “Return to me, for I have redeemed thee”. | MARY ALICE
CUSACK died 24th March 1925, aged 72. | “He bringeth them unto the haven where
they would be: | Then are they glad, because they are at rest”.

The bottom tablet on the face of the tomb reads: DOROTHY ALISON CUSACK | 25th June 1898 – 25th
March 1993 | H. V. CUSACK C.M.G., C.B.E. | 26th June 1895 – 20th March 1996 |
R. R. B. CUSACK JOBSON | 3rd August 1916 – 2nd November 1999 | E. P. C. CUSACK
JOBSON | 18th September 1917 – 29th July 2004

*Click on Photographs to view larger version.
All Photographs ©Copyright J.Geraghty-Gorman 2010.
Exact transcriptions from Ireland Genealogy Project Archives.

The Huguenot Communal Plot: 1713-1830: Mount Jerome Cemetery

This large communal plot is the result of the 1966 exhumation of graves from the Huguenot Cemetery at Peter Street, Dublin. In 1966 the land on which the cemetery was located was under the ownership of the Trustees of the French Huguenot Fund, and they wished to sell it. In 1966 a statute was created and passed by the Irish government called THE HUGUENOT CEMETERY DUBLIN (PETER STREET) ACT 1966, and passage of it allowed for the disinterment of the remains of approximately 300 persons, the demolition of the mortuary chapel, and the sale of the property to W. & R. Jacob & Co. Ltd. (the biscuit and cracker company), with whom a deal had already been struck. You can view the details of the Act on the Irish government website Irish Statute Book.

The remains of the Huguenots, including many children, were reinterred in Mount Jerome Cemetery in what is politely referred to as a "communal grave". The long grey headstone on which the names of the reinterred are inscribed is made of limestone and measures nine metres in length by two metres in height.

The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church in France. Free to practice their faith due to the 1598 Edict of Nantes, they fled France in record numbers in the 17th century when in 1685 King Louis XIV passed the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes and imposed Catholicism as the French state's only acceptable religion. It is estimated that approximately 10,000 of the 200,000 Huguenots who fled France settled in Ireland.

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All Photographs ©Copyright J.Geraghty-Gorman 2007-2015.

Walk this way....

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All photographs ©Copyright J.Geraghty-Gorman 2010.

Remembrance Day: Lest We Forget

Cenotaph at Guelph Ontario, birthplace of John McCrae, author of "In Flanders' Fields"

Close up of McCrae's poem which is on the left front of the Cenotaph

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All Photographs ©Copyright J.Geraghty-Gorman 2010.

Wordless Wednesday: In case there's any doubt, I went that way...

All Photos ©Copyright J.Geraghty-Gorman 2010.

Tombstone Tuesday: John Philpot Curran: "Evil prospers when good men do nothing."

This impressive sarcophagus in 'Curran Square' is the burial site of John Philpot Curran, a noted Irish parliamentarian, barrister, and solicitor. Despite a marked speech impediment, which sometimes undermined his delivery in court, Curran was known for his sharp wit. According to his contemporaries: "His speeches are one fiery torrent of invective, pathos, national feeling and wit. He was a most brilliant wit and of wonderful quickness in repartee". Over time many of Curran's sayings found their way into Bartlett's Quotations including the saying, "Evil prospers when good men do nothing". Curran was known for challenging people both in and outside the court, and is said to have participated in at least five duels. He was a strong advocate of Catholic Emancipation and a severe critic of patronage and corruption. Appointed as King's Counsel, the highest rank a lawyer could achieve in the period, he defended some very famous people in court, including United Irishmen Hamilton Rowan and Wolfe Tone.

The Curran family name is also famous because of the relationship between Curran's youngest daughter Sarah (1782-1808) and United Irishmen commander Robert Emmett (1778-1803). Unbeknownst to Curran, Sarah was secretly engaged to Robert. The relationship was uncovered when her letters to Emmett were discovered after he was imprisoned. Although he had defended other members of the United Irishmen, Curran refused to defend Emmett, who was ultimately sentenced to death on the gallows. Curran betrayed his own daughter by giving her correspondence with Emmett to the authorities. Ultimately he disowned Sarah, forcing her to flee to friends in London. The romantic tragedy of the doomed relationship of Sarah and Robert is played out in poetry and song. Upon her death Sarah was interred in a family plot in Newmarket, County Cork.

Curran was born in Newmarket County Cork Ireland on 24 July 1750. He died in Brompton, a suburb of London England, 14 October 1817. When he died in London he was initially buried in Paddington; however, seventeen years later in 1834 he was disinterred and his remains were transferred to Dublin for reinterment in Glasnevin. The Prospect Cemetery at Glasnevin had only been opened since 1832, two years prior to his reinterment.

Although John Philpot Curran shared a family of eight children with his wife, ultimately she deserted him and he died alone in England.

Curran's tomb dominates those around him.

Obit 1817 means year of death 1817; 'AET 67' from the Latin 'Aetatis' translates to 'age interred 67.'

*Click on photographs to view larger version.
All Photographs ©Copyright J.Geraghty-Gorman 2010.
Reference: MacThomais, Shane. Glasnevin: Ireland's Necropolis. Glasnevin Trust, Dublin, 2010.

Wordless Wednesday: The life of Christ depicted on a Celtic Cross

The Ascension

Triptych of the Garden of Gethsemane, The Crucifixion, and Christ's body returned to his mother

The Last Supper

The Betrayal by Judas

John the Baptist anoints Christ

The Nativity

The Visitation to Mary

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All Photographs ©Copyright J.Geraghty-Gorman

Tombstone Tuesday: Honouring in a non-specific way

This stone in Glasnevin Cemetery is a very interesting one because it stands as a memorial to those persons who died in military service between 1939 and 1945. The historians among us will note that those dates conventionally denote the beginning and end of World War II. Why, you might ask, does this memorial not simply carry the identifying title World War II across the top of it? The answer to that is simple, yet complex.

During World War II, despite the fact that almost 100,000 Irishmen fought as volunteers in the British forces, Ireland was officially classified as a neutral country. In fact, in Ireland, World War II was referred to as "The Emergency". Over the years there has been a lot of controversy surrounding the participation of Irish persons in the second world war, including questions about the exact numbers of participants, and about the lack of recognition of the service and sacrifice made by those who fought. This memorial stands as a marker of that controversy because, while it recognizes those who died fighting, it does so without specifically stating the name of the war in which they lost their lives.

Interestingly, just around the corner from this memorial stands a very large World War I memorial dedicated to "Officers and men who served and died during The Great War".

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©Copyright J. Geraghty-Gorman

Military Monday: An Irish lad lost

In Ireland in the early 20th century, despite the popular movement against conscription by the British, many young Irishmen voluntarily joined the British forces. This stone is a reminder of the many young Irish lives lost in World War I. This 19 year old man lost his life serving as a Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force and Royal Dublin Fusiliers.