Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Thank You, Thank You for the nomination

Hi Everyone,

This post is a little out of character, okay a lot, for a cemetery blog; however, I want to acknowledge, and say thank you, to whomever nominated this blog for Family Tree Magazine's 40 Best Genealogy Blogs 2011.


THANK YOU!!! I feel very honoured to be nominated alongside wonderful and inspirational cemetery blogs, such as Cemetery Explorers. Again, THANK YOU! I very much enjoy the process of producing this blog, sharing the photos I've had the honour to shoot, and learning about the history of the individuals who have gone before us.

A lot of wonderful blogs have been nominated, so if you would like to visit them click here, and if you would like to vote, click here. Voting is open until 20 December, and you may vote as often as you wish. Earlier I tried to put the Family Tree badge in this post, but it kept showing up all wobbly, but now thanks to Carol at Reflections From The Fence (a wonderful blog which is also nominated), I now have the badge.

There's been a lot of cemetery talk around our house lately. Kind of odd that we've chosen the holidays to discuss such things. Anyway, initially I had decided I want my ashes placed in a football (soccer ball for our North American friends) and booted into the ocean off the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare Ireland. Trouble is I might float around for too long, and without a headstone I would be left with no great quotation to pass on to future generations. Oh well, guess I'll have to keep thinking about it. Hopefully I have a lot more time left to think about it. Thank you again. :)

Cheers! Jennifer

Tombstone Tuesday: Urns: Classic, shrouded, and heavily cloaked





In many cemeteries you will find stones with urns atop them. The urn is a classic Greek and Roman symbol of mourning. With the body viewed as a vessel of the soul, the urn holds the cremated remains so that the soul might ascend to Heaven. The ancient Romans used the urn as a repository for the ashes of the dead, and it was always shrouded out of respect. The urn is a very popular symbol of mourning in Victorian Cemeteries, and Mount Jerome is no exception; however, while it is fairly common to see a shrouded urn, some of the urns here are heavily cloaked rather than lightly shrouded.





*Click on photographs to view larger versions.
©Copyright J.Geraghty-Gorman

Monday, December 6, 2010

Mystery Monday: Mrs. Farrington: her gravestone, their story



Although the grave marker reads "In loving memory of Mrs. Farrington", we learn little about her because she is described only in terms of her relationships to others, particularly to the men in her life. On the marker we learn of her father, Hugh Lane, her grandsons, the Grays, all of whom are interred elsewhere, and, by virtue of her surname, her husband Mr. Farrington. Hugh Lane and the Grays all have found their places in the history books; however, here on the stone marking her final resting place, Mrs. Farrington is not even afforded the courtesy of her first name. Although it is by no means uncommon to see such a grave, on which a woman is defined in terms of those powerful men to whom she was connected, it gives us pause to wonder, exactly who was Mrs. Farrington?

The stone reads:

In loving memory of Mrs. Farrington
Daughter of Dr. Hugh Lane of Limerick
died at Charleville House Rathmines
Nov. the 1st 1862
"Her end was peace"
And of her grandsons
John Wilson Gray A.B. T.C.D Barrister at Law
eldest son of Sir John Gray M. P.
Died November 1872
Interred in Abury Park Cemetery London
And of George Walter Gray who died Aug. 1879
at Vartry Lodge Balleybrack
And of Dr. William Darcan Gray L.R.C.S
Who died January 1886 at Sydney N.S.
Interred at Poorwood Cemetery Sydney
And of 
Lady Gray
Who died 27th April 1887
At Charleville House Rathmines

*Click on photographs to view a larger version.
All materials Copyright© J.Geraghty-Gorman 2010.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Wordless Wednesday, almost: The Monument Shop: Mount Jerome

We may not like to think about it, but if you are going to be buried in a cemetery, in a marked grave, at some point you have to visit the tombstone store. Here are some shots of the quirky one at Mount Jerome Cemetery in Harold's Cross, Dublin.






*Click on photos to view larger version.
All Photographs ©Copyright J.Geraghty-Gorman 2010.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Tombstone Tuesday: Clinch, Coleman, Walsh family grave: Swords, County Dublin

Erected by
Mrs. Jane Walsh
of Swords
In Memory of her beloved mother
Catherine Clinch
who died June 30th 1948
aged 73 years
Also her Brother James Clinch
died Nov. 6th 1853
aged 28 yrs.
And her father Fredrick Clinch
died Septr. 15th 1866 aged 90 years.
The above named Mrs. Jane Walsh
died July 6th 1876 aged 80 years.
Also Joseph Christopher Coleman
who died 22nd Feb 1954 aged 64 years
and his wife Catherine Coleman
died 1st Jan 1966 aged 77 yrs.
Their son Joseph Coleman
died 7th April 1994 aged 67 yrs.
*Click on photo to view larger version.
©Copyright J.Geraghty-Gorman 2010.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Matrilineal Monday: From my matrilineal tree: Kettle, Fitzpatrick, and Ward graves: Swords, County Dublin, Ireland

Sacred
To the memory of
Thomas Kettle of Drynam.
Who died 22nd September 1871
aged 72 years.
And his beloved wife Alice who died
24th September 1855 aged 55 years.
Also their beloved daughter
Mrs. Mary Fitzpatrick
who died 23rd April 1871 aged 39 years.
R. I. P.
Andrew J. Kettle 1833-1916
I. H. S.
In Memoriam
Charles Stewart Kettle
Newtown, St. Margaret's County Dublin
died 29 June 1952.
Also his beloved wife
Beda
died 11 June 1956
And his brother
Dr. Laurence J. Kettle
died 27th August 1960.
And his sister
Catherine Kettle
died 13 September 1967.
In loving memory of
my dear sister Teresa Fitzpatrick
died 25 December 1929 Swords.
Also her sister Alice Ward
died 27 May 1952 aged 91 years.

*Click on photographs to view larger version.
All Materials ©Copyright J.Geraghty-Gorman 2010.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Wordless Wednesday: Imploring Angel




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All photographs ©Copyright J.Geraghty-Gorman 2010.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Tombstone Tuesday: Order of Discalced Carmelites: Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, Ireland

Discalced Carmelite Friars are men who follow a consecrated way of life inspired by the Rule of Saint Albert, as it was interpreted by Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint John of the Cross. The word 'discalced' comes from the Latin 'discalceatus' which literally translates to shoeless. In this case it is used to denote membership in a community governed by strict practice and renunciation of worldly comforts. A distinctive feature of the Discalced Carmelite way of life is the focus on meditative prayer. In addition to daily Mass and Divine Office, the friars spend two hours in personal prayer each day. They live in very small communities, usually comprised of only four to six people.


The mandate of the Carmelite Friars is to serve the larger community principally by helping people with their practice of prayer, whether they pray regularly or have forgotten how to pray. In the words of the Friars: "We try to give our celebration of sacraments or the way we run our parishes a prayerful quality that is distinctive. We invite people to join us in our prayer. We pray with and for people. We give individual accompaniment and retreats and courses on prayer."

For more information visit the Website for Discalced Carmelite Friars

*Click on photographs to view larger version.
All Photographs ©Copyright J.Geraghty-Gorman 2010

Thursday, November 18, 2010

William Carleton: a novelist who intimately knew the lives of his characters


It could be said that Irish novelist William Carleton wrote not from imagination, but from experience. Born into humble surroundings on 4 March 1794 in the town of Prillisk, Clogher, County Tyrone, it is said that his skill in recounting peasant life was due to his experience of it. His father was a tenant farmer, an unsuccessful one, and in order to survive he had to move his family from farm to farm. As a Catholic child in British ruled Ireland, Carleton was forbidden to attend school, and so he received his primary education in the hedge school system. As a teenager he did receive formal education at the Classical Schools at Donagh and Glaslough in north County Monaghan.

Although he wrote several works, the best known of these is Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry. The book is described as "a tableau of the life of the country people of the north of Ireland before the famines of the 1840s altered their pattern of existence forever." Following the publication of this book he published other novels including Fardorougha the Miser (1839), Valentine McClutchy (1845), The Black Prophet (1847), The Emigrants of Ahadarra (1848), The Tithe Proctor (1849), and The Squanders of Castle Squander (1852). In The Squanders of Castle Squander Carleton touches on many of the issues affecting the Ireland he knew, such as the influence of the Church, landlordism, poverty, famine, and emigration.

He died at Sandford, County Dublin 30 January 1869, and is interred in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Harold's Cross, Dublin.

His wife must have had a presentiment in inscribing on his stone that he was "one whose memory needs neither graven stone nor sculptured marble to preserve it from oblivion". In fact, every summer since 1992 County Tyrone has played host to the William Carleton Summer School, one of Ireland’s most significant literary festivals. Their mandate is to celebrate the life and writings of the novelist William Carleton, 1794-1869. The School is held from the first Monday in August until the Friday of the same week in the district which Carleton knew best, the Clogher Valley.

*Click on Photograph to view larger version.
©Copyright J.Geraghty-Gorman 2010.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Wordless Wednesday, almost: Robert Whitby Crips, a mother's loss


The inscription reads:
This tomb is erected by his mother
In remembrance of a beloved and deeply lamented son
Robert Whitby Crips
An affectionate but mournful tribute
To the worth and excellence of him whose memory
Lives in her heart.
"Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God"
The memory of the just is blessed


Monday, November 15, 2010

The Huguenot Communal Plot: 1713-1830: Mount Jerome Cemetery


This large communal plot is the result of the 1966 exhumation of graves from the Huguenot Cemetery at Peter Street, Dublin. In 1966 the land on which the cemetery was located was under the ownership of the Trustees of the French Huguenot Fund, and they wished to sell it. In 1966 a statute was created and passed by the Irish government called THE HUGUENOT CEMETERY DUBLIN (PETER STREET) ACT 1966, and passage of it allowed for the disinterment of the remains of approximately 300 persons, the demolition of the mortuary chapel, and the sale of the property to W. & R. Jacob & Co. Ltd. (the biscuit and cracker company), with whom a deal had already been struck. You can view the details of the Act on the Irish government website Irish Statute Book.

The remains of the Huguenots, including many children, were reinterred in Mount Jerome Cemetery in what is politely referred to as a "communal grave". The long grey headstone on which the names of the reinterred are inscribed is made of limestone and measures nine metres in length by two metres in height.

The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church in France. Free to practice their faith due to the 1598 Edict of Nantes, they fled France in record numbers in the 17th century when in 1685 King Louis XIV passed the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes and imposed Catholicism as the French state's only acceptable religion. It is estimated that approximately 10,000 of the 200,000 Huguenots who fled France settled in Ireland.



*Click on Photographs to view larger version.
All Photographs ©Copyright J.Geraghty-Gorman 2007-2015.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Walk this way....







*Click on photographs to view larger version.
All photographs ©Copyright J.Geraghty-Gorman 2010.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Remembrance Day: Lest We Forget

Cenotaph at Guelph Ontario, birthplace of John McCrae, author of "In Flanders' Fields"

Close up of McCrae's poem which is on the left front of the Cenotaph
*Click on photos to view larger version.
All Photographs ©Copyright J.Geraghty-Gorman 2010.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Wordless Wednesday: The life of Christ depicted on a Celtic Cross




The Ascension
Triptych of the Garden of Gethsemane, The Crucifixion, and Christ's body returned to his mother
The Last Supper

The Betrayal by Judas

John the Baptist anoints Christ

The Nativity

The Visitation to Mary

*Click on photos to view larger version.
All Photographs ©Copyright J.Geraghty-Gorman
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