Graveyard, Killeeneen More, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Burial Grounds
A small graveyard in County Galway carries a name that distinguishes it from hundreds of similar enclosures across the west of Ireland.
Locals call it Reilig na BhFilí, the poets' graveyard, and the title is earned. Within its ivy-covered stone walls, which enclose a roughly rectangular space of about 36 metres by 25 metres, lie the remains of some of the most significant figures in the Irish-language literary tradition.
The graveyard contains burials dating from the late eighteenth century, marked by table tombs, headstones, and recumbent slabs. At its centre stand the remains of a late-medieval church, now ruined, whose presence suggests the site has served as a place of burial for far longer than the inscribed stones record. The poets interred here include Mark and Patsy Callanan, known as the poets of Carheenadiveane, and most notably Antoine Ó Raifteirí, anglicised as Anthony Raftery, the blind itinerant bard whose Irish-language verse became a touchstone of nineteenth-century Connacht culture. Raftery composed in the oral tradition, moving between households across south Galway and Mayo, and his work was largely preserved through later collectors rather than written manuscripts. That a man whose poetry existed so precariously should have so fixed a resting place gives the site a particular resonance.
The graveyard sits almost centrally within Killeeneenmore village, and access is through a gateway on the south-west side. The ruined church in the central area is worth examining closely; the fabric of a late-medieval structure surviving within an active burial ground is not always easy to read, but here it remains a visible presence among the more recent monuments.