School: Drom an Mhadaidh

Location:
Drumavaddy, Co. Cavan
Teacher:
S. Ó Murchadha
Browse
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0990, Page 037

Archival Reference

The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0990, Page 037

Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.

See copyright details.

Download

Open data

Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

  1. XML School: Drom an Mhadaidh
  2. XML Page 037
  3. XML “Old Graveyards”

Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.

On this page

  1. (continued from previous page)
    in this old [?] cemetery. The ruined walls are about 3ft. in height. The building was about 14ft. wide and it is impossible to tell its length as all trace of the eastern end wall has been removed to make way for graves.
    Within the walls are several Protestant tombs - some of them very massive and almost lost in the thick moss which covers them. About where the eastern extremity of the building was, and lying along one of the present day paths through the cemetery, there is a large limestone(?) slab. This stone is believed to have been the altar stone of the old chapel. Up to 25 yrs. ago it was the custom for all the men attending a funeral - and at that time funerals were very much larger than now - to engage each other in tossing the stone. A large number of stones were built up on the slab and the strongest man present endeavoured to raise the slab on one side and tumble it. To turn the bare slab itself would be a feat in [?]itself[?] but with a wall of large stones 3 ft. high built on it, it would take a Samson to turn it, nevertheless, there was always someone in the crowd able for the task. The fame of such men's strength always spread. The rising generation
    (continues on next page)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Topics
    1. objects
      1. man-made structures
        1. historical and commemorative structures (~6,794)
          1. graveyards (~2,501)
    Language
    English