Ground for unbaptised infants joined with Carrickmore graveyard

A CORRIDOR has been created to connect a Carrickmore cemetery to an adjacent, unmarked graveyard, which for hundreds of years was used to bury unbaptised children who were forbidden by the Catholic church from being laid to rest on consecrated ground.

The project, which has seen members of the Carrickmore community breach the perimeter wall of St Colmcille’s Church graveyard in order to ‘open it up’ to the children’s burial ground, has been in the pipeline for years, but last week was finally brought to fruition.

Knocking a hole through the stonewall that surrounds the main graveyard, steps were installed leading into ‘Reilig na Leanbh’, which translates to ‘Graveyard of Babies’, and a large stone cross made of Wicklow granite was erected.

The small plot, which is the final resting place of a large but unspecified number of infants from the area, was used right up until the 1960s.

Given the Vatican’s policy that people who died before being christened were not permitted to be buried in sanctified soil, ‘Reilig na Leanbh’ is one of many unmarked graves across Ireland dug just beyond the boundaries of church cemeteries.

RESPECT

Recently, however, in an effort to dignify the dead that lie within ‘Reilig na Leanbh’, and as an act of respect to local families whose loved ones were denied a proper burial, members of Termonmaguirc Historical Society (THS), particularly Arthur McCallan and Mickey Haughey, decided to spearhead this project.

To discuss the project, the UlsterHerald recently talked with a spokesperson from Termonmaguirc Historical Society.

“Reilig na Leanbh is a small plot on the northwest side of the graveyard marked on the Ordinance Survey map of 1879,” they began. “It is also mentioned in an early study by W Reeves ‘Life of Saint Columba’. Archaeologists Hamlin and Foley studies tell us that the separate burial of infants was most common throughout Ireland as far back as the pre-Christian period.”

They continued, “The project is being coordinated by Mickey Haughey and Arthur McCallan. Mickey, of course, having been a local gravedigger for many years, is an expert on all matters concerning the graveyard at St Colmcille’s and has an encyclopedic knowledge of its history and the burials therein.

“His role in bringing this project to fruition has been invaluable.”

Mickey, it was explained, vividly recalls how on Sunday August 17, 1997, Father Hegarty invited Archbishop Sean Brady to consecrate the children’s graveyard, marking perhaps the first step on the path to repair some of the emotional damage of the past.

GRATITUDE

“We also owe a great debt of gratitude to Arthur McCallan for gathering a team together to carry out the practicalities of the project which included making an entrance in the stone ditch of the main graveyard, fencing around Reilig na Leanbh and the erection of a large stone cross – an architectural artefact which Arthur salvaged from Jervis Street Hospital in Dublin when it was demolished over 25 years ago.”

Concluding, Fr O’Neill, parish priest of Termonmaguirc, was thanked for the part he played in the project.

“Attending the works last week, Fr O’Neill called to mind the prayer from the liturgy, ‘We grieve over the loss of ones so young and struggle to understand your purpose’.

“He expressed satisfaction that Reilig na Leanbh is now fully integrated into the main graveyard.”

Pat Fox, who owns the land on which Reilig na Leanbh rests, was also thanked for allowing the ground to be blessed and incorporated at long last part into the main graveyard.