These sites, known in Irish as cillíní (singular: cillín), appear in their hundreds across the Irish landscape, occupying liminal spaces, old ringforts, cliff edges, and unconsecrated ground. The practice arose from a theological position, once firmly held in Catholic doctrine, that children who died before baptism could not be buried in consecrated ground. The result was a quiet, persistent geography of grief, largely unacknowledged in official records and rarely marked with headstones.

Cillíní were not simply improvised or haphazard. Communities chose these locations deliberately, often returning to the same spot across generations, and the sites frequently have older, pre-Christian associations. In many parts of Connacht, a ringfort or the remnant of an early medieval enclosure served as the chosen ground, the sense being that such places already existed outside ordinary social boundaries. The Sraheen site fits into this broader west of Ireland pattern, in a county where cillíní are particularly numerous, reflecting both the density of rural settlement and the long reach of pre-Famine and Famine-era infant mortality.

Because these burial grounds were unofficial, documentation is sparse and physical traces are often subtle. Visitors to such sites typically find low, unmarked mounds or simple field-stone markers rather than inscribed grave slabs. The ground may appear unremarkable at first glance, which is itself part of what makes these places quietly affecting.