Irish Graveyard place......: Kildare

Crosskeys, County Kildare

Sun, 03 Jun 2007 10:02:42 GMT

Crosskeys in County Kildare would seem to be literally that, just a street or two on a crossroads and outside this is the graveyard. Townlands mentioned on the stones in the graveyard are from the civil parishes of Ballybrackan, Kilberry, Monasterevin and Kildangan for the most part. The remnants of the chuch walls are totally overgrown just humps in the earth with stones inside the wall perimeter.

I've uploaded this set of photos to my FLICKR account as it was the quickest and easiest way of uploading this many photos at once

Surnames as they appear on the stones

Archbold see Dunne - Archbold - Bacon & Pender - Barry see Rowan - Behan & Higgins & Kelly - Boland - Breen - Brennan - Bunbury - Butler see Spencer - Byrne - Carroll see Kelly - Carroll - Casey - Colmey - Conlon see O'Toole - Connolly & McDonnell - Connolly see Pender - Corcoran see Kelly - Corrigan - Cross - Curran see Dowling - Delaney - Dempsey & Demsy - Dow..(maybe Dowling) - Dowling & Curran - Dunne & Lawlor & Archbold & Grattan - Ennis - Eustace - Farrell - Fitzpatrick - Flanagan(maybe) - Flynn - Forde & Sheil - Foy - Grattan see Dunne - Hall - Harrison - Heffernan - Higgins see Behan - Hughes - Kavanagh see Murphy - Kavanagh - Kelly & Corcoran & Carroll - Kelly see Behan - Lalor - Lawler - Lawlor see Dunne - Lawlor -Lennon see Rourke - Maher - McDonnell see Connolly - Merrin - Mooney - Murphy & Kavanagh & Roche - Murray - Nolan - O'Toole & Conlon - Pender & Connolly - Pender see Bacon - Ready - Roche see Murphy - Rourke & Lennon - Rowan & Barry - Sexton - Sheil see Forde - Shorte - Smyth - Somers - Spencer & Butler - Stynes - Sullivan - Walsh

Placenames:

Ashgrove, Kildangan - Ballyfarsoon - Ballyfarsoone - Cloney - Cloney, Athy - Crosskeys, Kildangan - Derryoughta - Derryoughter - Fassaugh, Monasterevan - Grange Moore Abbey, Monasterevan - Kilbeg - Kilberry, Athy - Kildangan - Kill, Monasterevan - Killeen - Kilpatrick - Larch Hill, Monasterevan - Lughill - Old Grange, Monasterevan - Passlands, Monasterevan - Rath School, Queen's Co. - Richardstown - Riverstown - Riverstown, Kildangan - Stramillian

Crosskeys photographs on FLICKR

http://www.flickr.com/photos/88889363@N00/sets/72157600302933545/

The photo below - it's kind of sad, someone remembering their parents but not naming them on the cross

Kildare Co: Kilberry Old

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 12:46:51 GMT

Today, we’re going back to County Kildare, to a place called Kilberry.

Kilberry itself is on the main road to Carlow from Monasterevin in Co. Kildare, the road goes past Athy. It’s probably only a few miles out from Athy, but I came at it from the Monasterevin side accidently as I had missed the turn off I was looking for.

There is a Protestant church on the main road and whilst I did take photographs there, it’s the other set that I am loading now.

The ‘other set’ are photographs from what was the old catholic church (I think) but which is maintained by the County Council now. I say it’s probably the old Catholic church, but there are surnames in there (the older type stones) which if I heard them said I’d immediately think ‘they were Protestants’. So, don’t judge this graveyard as being of any particular religion.

This is another of the church for which just walls exist. It’s at the end of a road which leads into a farmyard. If you do come from Monasterevin and you reach the Kilberry Protestant church then you have gone too far down the road, you’ve missed the turn for this particular church. It’s marked simply as a ‘church’ on Ordnance Survey Discovery Series Map No. 55. Historical sites are always in red script on these maps, so it’s location is easy enough to find on the map itself.

This graveyard is still in use, but there is a notice from the County Council stating that only people who already have plots in this cemetery will be buried here now.

It’s pretty, well kept and peaceful. What was most noticeable about this one compared to others was the number of children buried here – maybe it was because they all seemed to be in the section of the graveyard to the far side of the church body, but for the number of stones they stood out.

I am not including photographs of the stones or memorials to children, except in one instance where the surname does not appear on any stone in this cemetery. There is no first name on this memorial. There is one other stone dedicated to a sixteen year old boy of the surname Dooley. That is not included here. There seemed to be a good few of the metal cross type markers with no names. These photographs will be included with the blog and not in the album

I photographed four stones which I couldn’t read and which are not included here.

Jane : http://www.from-ireland.net/contents/kilcont.htm

Surnames found on these stones:

Cahan & Moran - Chatfield - Cole see Kelly - Connolly see Owens - Dooley - Eustace babies - Fitzpatrick - Grattan & Owen - Hamilton - Hayes & Hutchinson - Hutchinson see Hayes - Johnson - Kane - Keeeife (seems to have three e's) - Kelly & Cole - Lawler & Timpson - Lawlor see Owens - Moran - Moran see Cahan - Murphy - O'Keeffe - Osborne - Owens & Connolly & Lawlor - Owen see - Grattan - Renehan - Smyth - Timpson see Lawler

Kildare Co. : Knavinstown

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 07:34:24 GMT

Knavinstown proved not too easy to find and I can't even be 100% sure that this is Knavinstown graveyard. However, it fits the bill as it seems to be in the area of Knavinstown as marked on my Ordnance Survey map No. 55.

I'd gotten to Kildare town at about 8am just before dawn broke and I'd tried taking a few photos there they didn't work out too well as it was still dark. St. Bridget's Church in Kildare town is just a blurred image! After that I'd set out to find Knavinstown and got a bit distracted by the main graveyard for Kildare town where I met a man who gave me instructions on how to find an old graveyard. Following his instructions and my map I proceeded to get a wee bit lost and found myself at an old church which is being restored in the area of Thomastown - that chuch is not marked on the map as far as I can make out. Anyway, from there, I found my way to what I thought was Knavinstown.

It's a lovely neat little graveyard round the remnants of a church - the church is covered in ivy and it may only be one wall that is still standing. The earliest date on any stone is 1759 and the surname is Ryan - it may be that this is a replacement stone or simply restored. The most common surnames are Corry, Martin and Gray and I guess it's possible that the Gorry or Gurry and Corry surnames are all synomyms

A small graveyard, about 34 stones in all and I took a few photos of the fields around the graveyard with young crops to give you some idea of how 'flat' this part of County Kildare is

Jane

http://www.from-ireland.net

The gravestone photos are in an album of the same name as this blog.