Children's burial ground, Bellanagarraun, Co. Galway

Co. Galway |

Burial Grounds

Children’s burial ground, Bellanagarraun, Co. Galway

On a slight rise in open grassland in North Galway, a small rectangular enclosure holds rows of stones set flush with the earth, each one marking the grave of a child.

These are the quiet traces of a cillín, the Irish term for an unconsecrated burial ground used for unbaptised infants and others excluded from burial in sanctified ground under Catholic canon law. For centuries, such sites absorbed the grief that official religion could not accommodate, and they are scattered across the Irish countryside in their thousands, most of them unmarked on any map a casual visitor would carry.

This particular enclosure at Bellanagarraun measures roughly 13 metres north to south and just over 11 metres east to west, enclosed by a drystone wall that has partially collapsed but remains legible as a boundary. The graves within are oriented east to west, as was customary even in unconsecrated ground, a quiet echo of orthodox Christian practice retained even in spaces that the Church officially did not recognise. The numerous small set stones that mark the graves suggest the site saw sustained use over time, though no specific dates or periods of use have been recorded for this location. The description of the site as well-preserved points to a ground that has not been ploughed or built upon, which for a cillín in agricultural country is itself notable.

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