Kilkieran Graveyard, Parish of Templeorum, county Kilkenny: Part 1.

Kilkieran graveyard is situated in the townland of Castletown; the old church here, now long gone, was called the church of Castlan, Casslan and sometimes Cassellan.   In Irish it is called Kill-Keerawin or the church of St Kieran of Ossory.  Others have suggested that this might have been founded by Ciaran of Clonmacnoise, or Ciaran of Saighir (SeirKieran in county Offaly) but as no records  of the foundation have survived it is almost impossible to tell.   The old church was apparently razed to the ground in 1780 and the materials used to build a school.  This exact history is slightly confusing as O'Curry mentions a little church which stood near the West Cross as existing in 1834 which appears to have been eventually converted into a mausoleum used by the Osborne family of Annefield and Kilmacoliver.   This school/little church in its turn became an unsightly ruin and has now been restored as a flat stone platform (measuring 25ft, 6 inches x 14ft, 4 inches) onto which 3 memorials(nos 26, 27, 28)  have been placed flat; at least two of these erected to the Osborne family must have been inside the mausoleum at one time.

General view of Kilkieran graveyard showing the railed in sarcophagus of the Walsh family, the West High Cross and the raised platform, formerly the Osborne mausoleum

The small walled graveyard, nestling under Kilmacoliver hill and overlooking the valley of the River Suir, is beautifully maintained with most of the memorials and monuments positioned to the south of the site.  In 1985 the local community wished to re-open part of the graveyard which appeared unused and given the antiquity of the site, archaeological excavations took place, within the walled area, to the north of the present old burial ground to ascertain if it were suitable for development as a graveyard or not.   So many archaeological remains were found in this apparently unused area that its development for modern burial purposes was deemed unsuitable.   7 trenches were dug and material found there included local medieval pottery and flint tools but importantly revealed the remains of part of a stone built monastic wall with associated habitation.   The Bullaun stones listed in our graveyard survey came from these excavations. (See the article by Maurice Hurley listed below if you would like to read more).

The Bullaun stones unearthed during the excavations in  1985

 Kilkieran graveyard, Kilkenny is only about one mile from what we are calling its sister site, Aheny which is in Tipperary.   Despite being in two different counties it is evident that the local people used both graveyard. For example people from Ballinacroony, Kilkenny are buried both here and in Ahenny.  Being so close to the Tipperary and Waterford borders means that you have to keep an open mind about all these connections and there is a fluidity of movement here between all three of these counties.
There are three ancient Celtic crosses in this graveyard known as the North, the East and the West Crosses.  The remnants of a fourth Cross are also found here;  the larger surviving fragment having been used as a door lintel into the now defunct Osborne family mausoleum.   The East and the West Cross have been damaged and were described in 1851 as smashed and prostate.   These damaged Crosses were repaired in 1858, under the patronage of Mrs John Walsh of Fanningtown House (see the next blog for more information about this family), by a blind artisan from Faugheen called Paddy Laurence, who had accidently lost his sight whilst engaged in the building of the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London.

In all we counted 68 stones or memorials in this graveyard but this does include the Holy Well which is marked as St Kieran's Well and a large Bullaun stone next to the Holy Well used for holding water from the well and marked "Cure for Headaches".   We have used it ourselves and can vouch for its efficacity!

The Holy Water Font full of water taken from the adjacent Holy Well - an efficacious cure for the headache!

We have surveyed the graveyard into 15 rows or sections. Carrigan(1905) says of this graveyard that there are about a dozen headstones dating from 1750 onwards; it is difficult to know exactly what he meant but we found 19 headstones or memorials with dates prior to 1850.  This includes one stone dated 1715 (No 20 erected to commemorate William and Mary Lacy who both died in August 1715) and another dated 1741 (No 46 erected for Piearse Butler and wife Catherin Shay both of whom died in the same year and both aged 60 yrs - all spellings as on the headstone).  There are 11 headstones with dates between 1750-1799 and a further headstones with dates between 1800-1850.   There is a modern stone (No 15) which is marked as "Strangers Corner"; this is to the immediate right as you enter the graveyard.  Bernie has taken all the pictures.

A very strange and pagan phallic shaped stone; there are no designs or markings on it.

Stone No 49 belongs to the Barry family, of Annsboro Mills and includes a WWII reference to Gerard (Garry) Barry who is interred in Milsbeek War Cemetery, Limburg Holland and who died on 21st February 1945 aged 36 years.   He was a guardsman in the 3rd Batt. Irish Guards and his family is recorded as being from Carrick on Suir, Tipperary.
Index of names listed on the memorials
Barry 49
Boyse 34
Butler 46
Casey 17
Clancy 52
Clear 55
Crowley 21
Cunningham 31
Cunigham 30
Daniel 34, 37
Dooly 53
Doren 50
Dwyer 6, 10
Ellis 38, 60
Gleeson 3
Honney 33
Kennedy 38, 40, 41, 57, 60
Lacy 20
Lonergan 4, 21
Mackey 42
Maher 35
McDonnell 39
Moran 24
Nowlan 27
O'Dwyer 7,8,9,24
O'Neale 3
O'Neill 24
Osborne 26,28
Phelan 9, 42,45,47
Power 24
Shay 46
Stuart 21
Villiers Stuart 56
Walsh 21, 24, 39
Whelan 56

Indexes of places listed on the memorials
Annsboro Mills 49
Ansborough 28
Ballinacroney 6,9
Ballycastlane 24,25
Ballycastle? 34
Ba..y..w.  (This is possibly Ballygown, Fiddown) 27
Ballyhenebry 41
Ballyhennebry 33
California 30
Carrick-on-Suir 24
Castletown 10,40,53
Cottrlestown 30
England 57
Holland 49
Fanningstown 24
Kilkenny county 26
Kilkieran 40,57,60
Kilmacoliver 26
Main Street 24
Newtown 42
Piltown 24, 57
Rossenara 24
San Francisco 30
Skough 21
USA 30

Index of masons who have signed memorials
Gargan, Kilkenny 57
Molloy Callan 10, 24 (top plaque only), 30, 38. 40
O'Donnell, Waterford 49
O'Keeffe and Sons, Michael Street, Waterford 9
Smith (Sculpt March 1816) 28
M.White, Carrick, 53*
* Michael White of Fair Green, Carrick on Suir is listed under Stone Masons and Stone Cutters in the 1846 Slater's Directory of Ireland.

Index of occupations or positions noted on the memorials
Irish Guards 49
J.P. 24
Nurse 49.

Decorated fragment of an ancient cross now standing near the raised platform which was once the Osborne Mausoleum. Note the typical Celtic spiral designs.

Further Reading
1. Carrigan, Rev. William. The History and Antiquities of the Diocese of Ossory. Vol IV. 1905.
2. Crawford, Henry S. The Crosses at Kilkieran and Ahenny in Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. Fifth Series. Vol 39. No 3.(Sept 30 1909). pp 256-260.
3. Hurley, Maurice F.  Excavations at an Early Ecclesiastical Enlosure at Kilkieran, county Kilkenny in Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquities of Ireland. Vol 118 (1988) pp 124-134.
4. Roe, Helen M. High Crosses of Western Ossory.  Kilkenny Archaeological Society. 1962.

Horses and riders on the eastern base of  the West Cross at Kilkieran carved sometime in the 8th or 9th century.