School: Skerdagh, Newport (roll number 3905)
- Location:
- Skerdagh Lower, Co. Mayo
- Teacher: James Deffely
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0086, Page 99
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- XML “Burrishoole Graveyard”
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- Burrishoole Graveyard is situated about one and a half miles out from Newport, Co Mayo, along the road which runs to Mullranny, Newport, Co. Mayo. About a hundred and fifty years ago it was the custom whenever those who were digging a grave came on a skull to throw it up out of the hole and to leave it there when the grave was closed. As time went by the graveyard became white with skulls. They were in piles and in ones all over the burying ground. A foreign ship put into Clew Bay and anchored near the graveyard. The crew came ashore and collected all the skulls that they could find and brought them in their boats aboard the ship. The people of the locality believed that they were to be used for making manure. In later years the skulls were piled in hundreds on top of the tower in the graveyard. Then some priest who was in Newport, Mayo ordered that no skull should be left overground.
