It took me a while to find this graveyard even though it seems to be nicely enough marked on the Ordnance Survey Map!

 

It's close to Clonaslee, on the Offaly side just off the Birr road I think it was, out in the middle of nowhere and almost on the border of the two counties. The remnants of the old church are totally covered in ivy, though on one side of it the ivy is dead.  The graveyard was pretty overgrown the day I was there.  There were the usual steps in the wall to get into the graveyard and there is a nice little kind of castellated section remaining on the church beside the grave of Peter Murphy.

 

As usual these days, I'm putting the photos which I can't read on this site and the ones which van be read on my Laois Genealogy web site.  The URL for the photos which can be read is

 

I've sortted the surname list for the stones to show which stone to go to when a surname occurs as a secondary surname on the stone.  So, I hope that will make it a bit easier for people to find the photos with their family names on them. 

 

The church in this graveyard was dedicated to St. Fintan of Clonenagh and the oldest stone I could read is dated 1737 for Denis Hyland.  I imagine that the stones I have labelled as Hyland or Ryland is another Hyland stone!

 

The church and graveyard are located close to a Holy well for which I also have photos, and down a wee road which is close to another road which is close to the new motorway being run through Laois!  I'm placing the photos which I couldn't read on this web site and all the photos which I could fully read on my Laois Genealogy web site http:www/:laoisgenealogy.com  so, on this site some of the photos do carry the surnames but I need to go back and look at them again

 

All in all there are 155 names spread through approx 40 surnames.  Surnames occurring on the stones are as follows: Brophy - Browne, also see Mulloney & O'Neill -  Campion, also see O'Neill - Cass see Delany  - Connor - Conroy - Corcoran - Delaney, also see Parkinson - Delany - Dooley - Dowling - Dunn, also see Connor -Fitzpatrick, also see Conroy - Gowen - Grady see O'Dwyer - Harris - Hyland - Hyland or Ryland - Kavanagh, also see O'Connor - Keenan - Keys - Lalor - Loughnane -
Maher - McEvoy - Moloney - - Mooney - Mulloney - O'Connor - O'Dwyer - O'Neill - Parkinson - Phelan - Stone.

 

Placenames mentioned are Aghabo - Bridge st., Mountrath - Cash or Gash? - Clonard, Mountrath - Clonareen, Mountrath - Cloncough, Kilbricken - Cromogue - Derrough - Derry Conn - Derrycanton - Forest, Mountrath - Kilbricken - Killeany - Maryville, Borris in Ossory - Parkavilla - Roskelton - Shanahoe - Shannon st., Mountrath - Spa Hill -  Portlaoise - Trumera, Mountrath

and all in County Laois.

 

The photographs of the stones which I could read, and some of which are carried here with names are at :

 

and maybe someone with a bit more time on their hands and computer savvy as regards manipulating photos can do a bit better with the ones I can't read which I am putting on this web site.  If that happens, please be sure to let me know.

 

Thanks

Jane

I remember being confused as to which county this graveyard was in but now I know it's Laois, although the civil parish is spread through Laois and Kilkenny.  The graveyard itself is in the village of Attanagh and at the time of the townlands directory (1851) and the Griffiths Valuation there was no village called Attanagh in Ireland!  Griffiths shows the Church & Graveyard as being in the townland of 'Glebe'.

 

Today, this is a village, small.........but pretty.  St. Brigid's Church is quite worn and when I visited quite overgrown in spots.  Grass at the front had been cut, but not at the back.  There are not that many legible headstones and a good few of my photos were taken of one family plot. The surnames in that plot include Warren, Butler, Shuldham.

 

I'm loading some of the unreadable photographs to this site - only about three sets.  I've left the original image numbers as taken by my camera on them, but indicate which 'set' they are with numbers 1,2,3... before the image number.

 

The rest of the gravestone photographs, including those which I was unable to read but could make out a surname on to my Laois Genealogy web site

 

Surnames found on the stones in St. Bridget's Church of Ireland graveyard, Attanagh, Co's Laois and Kilkenny, Ireland: Butler - Cantwell - Curry - Doonan - Dudley - Ebbs - English - Grant - Harvey - Hopkinson - Lancaster - Lowry - Maxwell - Morton - Murison - Nixon - Rollins - Ruddoch - Ruddock  - Seale - Shuldham - Smith - Thorpe - Warren - Whiteford - Wills