Children's burial ground, Emlaghmore, Co. Galway

Co. Galway |

Burial Grounds

Children’s burial ground, Emlaghmore, Co. Galway

In a rough pasture field in east Galway, close to the foot of a drumlin ridge, a small patch of ground holds two graves lying side by side.

There is no enclosing wall, no formal boundary, nothing to mark the place out from the surrounding farmland except a modest grave-marker at the western ends of both plots and, a little to the north, a low, indistinct raised area in the grass. The whole site measures only six metres by five. Its smallness is part of what makes it quietly affecting.

Local tradition associates the site with two distinct but overlapping uses. It is thought to have served as a famine-era burial ground, likely from the catastrophic years of the mid-nineteenth century when the urgency and scale of death frequently outpaced the capacity of consecrated graveyards. It is also believed to have functioned as a children's burial ground, known in Irish as a cillín, a category of informal burial place used across Ireland for unbaptised infants and young children who, under Catholic practice of the time, were excluded from burial in consecrated ground. The raised area to the north of the two visible graves is understood to mark where those children's burials lie. Both of the clearly defined graves are edged with small stones and oriented east to west, following the standard Christian alignment. The site was recorded following information brought forward by the archaeologist Michael Gibbons.

The two visible graves and the less defined northern area together occupy a modest rectangle of unenclosed land immediately east of a by-road. The drumlin ridge behind gives a slight sense of shelter, though the setting is otherwise open and plainly rural. Because the site is unenclosed and sits within rough pastureland, it can be easy to miss without knowing where to look.

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Pete F
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