Kilrossanty, Co. Waterford.

few pence a day. Áth Cláirín or the Five Cross Roads is about a mile from the village of Stradbally. There are five roads going to different places. One leads to Dungarvan, another to Bonmahon, Kilmacthomas, Faha and Stradbally. The Booreen Caoch is an old road that once led to Kilrossanty from Stradbally village. It went through Moonavaud Park and Kilminion and into Kilrossanty but it is now overgrown with grass and only parts of it can be distinguished from the fields and ditches.
Long ago there was an old man living in Kilrossanty who had a blind horse. He used to come to Stradbally Cove for sand. He would fill the bag of sand and put it on the blind horses back and the horse would bring the sand home and come back again for another bag.

1. Local Poets: There is a number of poets connected with the district of Kilmacthomas. - Donnchadh Ruadh mac Conmara a native of Co. Clare. He was a very educated man, and he knew all the languages of that time - Irish, Greek, Latin and English. He taught a "hedge school" in Ballymacarberry, Clonmel for some time. He then came to Kilmacthomas where he also had a "hedge school". When in Kilmacthomas he went to Newfoundland where he did not remain very long. When there he wrote that very fine song in praise of Ireland: "Bánchnuic Éireann óigh". He returned to Kilmacthomas where he died at an advanced age, and he is buried in Newtown. There is a monument erected to his honour with an Irish inscription on it.2. Riobárd Bheldon: a native of Kilrossanty. He was a very poor man. He went to Dublin every year to the Feis, and always won the prize - a gold medal or a cup for his poems, music and dancing. He wrote "A Chumman 'sa Stór" and a number of other poems too. He died in the Work-house, Kilmacthomas, and is burried in Kilrossanty inside the gate.3. R. M. Ó'Faoláin: Born in Kilrossanty, Kilmacthomas, entered Mount Melleray Abbey of which he

The Parish of Kilrossanty is dedicated to Saint Brigid, and the school is under the protection of St Brigid also.When Saint Patrick went to Comeragh the people there gave him a dog to eat, and he was so angry with them that he caused a shower of stones to fall on Comeragh, and those stones are there still. When St. Brigid heard it she caused double blades of grass to grow in Comeragh.There is a well in Kilrossanty in the old Cemetery dedicated to the Saint, and on her feast day the people make "rounds" around her well and Our Lady's and Saint Patrick's wells. Five Our Fathers, five Hail Marys, and five Glories are said going around the well. In nearly every house in the parish of Kilrossanty someone of the daughters is called Brigid.
Josephine Dunphy,
Grawn
Kilmacthomas

An Old Graveyard
There is an old graveyard between Kilrosanty Chapel and Kilrossanty National School. In the field adjoining the graveyard there are three blessed wells, St Mary's, St Brigtd's and St Patrick's. Thousands of people come to those wells to get cured usually on St Brigid's Day as she is the patron saint of Kilrossanty parish.
One time a poor family got terrible sickness and there was a grave made for them to go into, the sickness was so terrible. There was a priest in the parish named Fr. O'Shea who went down in the tomb to anoint these poor creatures. He also brought food to

Pallisers of Comeragh House subsidised a school for the tenants at Mahon Bridge and we were all invited to attend free of charge. It was there he learned his first lessons and though Protestant as the school was the Catholics were well educated in Irish and England.
He saw the Kilrossanty National School being built and opened in 1836 and 1837. Mr. Hennebry was the architect, the old gentleman was a much learned man and helped the priests in promoting many projects for parochial benefits. He saw the two present churches Kilrossanty and Fews rise bit by bit and finally finished under the personal supervision of Fr. Power of Furraleigh, who was a great priest, and a great congregation from far and near gathered and paid subscriptions at the opening Mass in 1841. The subscriptions were to pay off the debt. They were all bound that day with peace and plenty and little did they think of the dark clouds that were to come and of the distant rumblings of

A Mr. Coleman who died in Waterford thirty five years ago, would only give this information with great reluctance remarking that the sad black spots in the picture should be kept secret from the present generation.
These are Mr. Coleman's words. He tells that he was born in Coill Kilrossanty in the year 1810. He says he did not hear it called Kilrossanty in his childhood days. Irish, of course, was the language in these days and that was the name handed down to him by his father and grandfather, of course there was Kilcomeragh. Over at Mahon Bridge the Catholics attended their religion in the back centuries. He also said that he knew the three Father Meanys personally

the bailiffs to absent themselves from the house, meanwhile they themselves took the body of Wallace and interred it at Kilrossanty.
When Wallace was dead the solicitor came to settle his affairs. A man named Sherlock was present when the solicitor arrived. Sherlock had already put a slip of paper into the dead mans mouth on which slip was written : "I am leaving all my estate to Sherlock". It was Sherlock who wrote this. Then he took out the slip of paper and handed it to the solicitor saying "These are the last words that came out of Valentines mouth". In this way Sherlock became the owner of Ballinavouga and Carrigmorna.
The monument which was erected to the memory of Valentine Wallace is still to be seen in the old graveyard at Kilrossanty.

There lived in the parish of Kilrossanty some years ago a parish priest named Father O'Shea. One Sunday he was going to Fews to celebrate Holy Mass, he was accompanied by a newly ordained priest. They both were on horseback and they had to cross the river Mahon which was in full flood, there was no bridge at this time crossing the river. Father O'Shea was leading, and he rode his horse into the flood, and as he was crossing, the waters divided and he crossed the river safely, but the young priest was afraid to cross, Father O'Shea looked back and called on the young priest ot come on but he said he was afraid then Father O'Shea said to him "where is your faith" and he proceeded on his way to Fews and the young priest turned home.
In later years Father O'Shea died and his remains were interred in the old grave yard in Kilrossanty. People said he was a saint, and some people used to bring away some of the clay

Holy wells. - In a field below the old cemetery in Kilrossanty are three holy wells. The wells are dedicated to Our Lady, St. Brigid and St. Patrick. On St. Brigid's Feast Say Mass is celebrated in Kilrossanty Parish Church at 8.30, and then the people make "rounds". They go around the old cemetery three times and say the rosary each time. Then at each of the wells are said five Pater Aves three times. At each well people take three drinks, and put in medals, money, buttons or pieces of cloth. Many people get cured of sore eyes, pains or aches, they bathe the parts in the water, and trusting in God they get cured.
About twenty years ago a woman washed her suffering baby in St. Patrick's well, and another woman wiped her sore eye with the cloth used in washing the baby. The baby got cured, and the woman got blind of one eye. The water of the wells runs down through the bogs and out to the road. Tinkers once got some of the water to make tea, and they put it into a kettle, and left it to boil for an hour or longer, and it would not boil. Some boys took buttons out of the wells, and if they did they got sore hands which did not heal until they put the buttons back again, and then they got all right. Two of the wells are in the middle of the field,

There is an old ruined Castle in Barnakill, Curraheen, Kilrossanty Co. Waterford. It is not certain who built it, but some say it was the Danes who came from Denmark. It is over six hundred years old. I don't know how long it is in ruins. It wasn't ever destroyed or attacked.
There is an old Church in Kilrossanty, and it was a Catholic Church. There is old-fashioned writing on some one of the Tomb Stones there. It is called Ogham writing, but I cannot read it.
There are old ruined houses in Gardenturtan, they were called "Taverns". A Tavern is a house built of stone and mud and a chimney made of sally switches covered with mud to keep it from burning. They are about one hundred years old. One of them was owned by Mr. David Organ, Gardenturtan, Kilmacthomas, but he is not living in it now, but he is living still, and his age at present is 83 years.

Once a woman had a son a priest and he told her that every Mass she would be present at, to put a stone in a box. At the end of the year she opened the box and only found one stone in it. That woman saw by that she only heard one Mass properly. She lived in Comeragh but I don't know what her name was.
Here is another : A man was going to mass one Sunday morning and he met a priest at Kilrossanty School. The man was carrying a bag on his back. The priest asked him what he had in the bag. He said "Potatoes" and the priest asked him if he prayed for every person who gave him alms. The man said "Some I do and some I don't". The priest asked him if he would spill the potatoes out on the road. The man did so and all the people he prayed for who gave him alms separated from those he did not.
The priest said "Those are all you prayed for and there are three times as much you did not pray for". That priest's name was Fr. Tracey and he was a priest that was in Kilrossanty in days gone by.

native place and was buried in Kilrossanty graveyard. Michael Francis Sheehan was another poet who lived in this district. He was born in Ballyhussa in the Parish of Newtown near Kilmacthomas. He was a farmer and spent all his spare time writing songs and poems. They were all written in English.

Situation
This parish is situated in the Barony of Decies without Drum. it is bounded on the North by the parish of Mothel; on the East by that of Rosmire; on the South by those of Ballylaneen and Kilrossanty and on the West by those of Kilrossanty and Mothel.
Name
Paróiste na bhFiodh - Oarish of the Woods. (Fews, however, is singularly bare of trees at the present day).
There are remains of antiquity in this parish, but the site of the old church which is pointed out at the village of Fews, immediately to the west of the chapel, a stream running between them. The graveyard is no longer to be seen and even the foundation of the old church cannot be traced.
In the townland of Coum Mahon in this parish the river Mahon has its source. The word Com, which is the name of many localities in the Comeragh Mountains, signifies a nook or hollow in the mountain.

On St. Brigid's Eve it is a custom to get flat pieces of sticks and make a cross and to get wheaten straw and work a diamond on each end and on top and have the cross in a diamond shape. This is hung on one of the rafters of the house and left there.
St. Brigid's Day is always held a Sunday in the Parish of Kilrossanty. It is a custom for all the people to go to early Mass and go to the Holy Wells and make rounds - that is certain prayers are said at each Well

evictions. He emigrated to America and became editor of Boston's chief newspaper and he died in 1893. As he had wished to return to rest in Kilrossanty graveyard, but his health broke down and he died in exile. Here is an extract from Stack's last letter -In a nook where the brook murmurs by
In the gloom of the tomb let me lie
Let the green still be seen where I rest
Of the grand dear old land I love best
At the head of my bed place a stone
All I claim is my name there alone
Should you pass o'er the grass, shed a tear
For the wild mountain boy that sleeps there.Bob Weldon, Irish poet, he lived all his life by the Mahon singing in that beautiful Irish, characteristic of his style. Like most poets, the greater part of his compositions went up with the smoke in his pipe. Read his lament on the death of Father R. Power of Furraleigh so pathetic and grand and glossed with the most refined language. Bob died in 1914 and is buried in Kilrossanty.

One evening a man with a hump on his back was passing a lios near my home in Ballingown, Kilrossanty and he heard the fairies singing 'Monday, Tuesday, Monday, Tuesday'. So he told them to add Wednesday on to it and they did, so they took the hump off him for adding on Wednesday.
When this man was going home he met a friend of his who had a hump also. He told the man how

Curraheen, Co. Waterford in the year 1834. The bailiffs made a seizure on a Widow's corn and the neighbours collected to prevent the corn from being carried away. The soldiers fired at the people who could not defend themselves. In the parish of Kilrossanty, Co. Waterford a number of families who were evicted took shelter in a limekiln and there was a man buried in it some time [?] before that. The man's name was Valentino. Some time [?] before that a priest named Father Flynn was called to annoint some people in the limekiln and the priest said afterwards that he annointed the living and the dead because he went down into the grave to annoint the dead man. The people that were landlords long ago sold their land to the Land Commission in Dublin. The people did not want to pay their rent to the landlords because the rent was too high. The landlords are not owed now because the people pay their rent willingly as the rent is fair.

I live in the Parish of Kilrossanty and St. Brigid is the Patron Saint of the Parish.
On St. Brigid's Eve my mother hangs a sash or a tie or a handkerchief on the latch of the door so that St. Brigid would bless it during the night and it would cure a headache.
On May Eve my father shakes Easter water on the land and on the animals and outhouses.
The old people around here would not cut their hair on a Monday as they think it would not grow and they stick the

Kilrossanty - Cill Rosanta - "St. Roasant's (Roscentius) Church. "Ros" also means "a wood".
Within the graveyard is the execrated tomb of Valentin Wallis, popularly regarded with dread while immediately without the sacred precincts are three holy wells -Tobar Íosa, Tobar Mhuire, Tobar Bhrighde.
Wallis (of the tomb) was an Augustinian friar of the Penal Days, who, to retain some family estate, (Ballykeerogue, Ballyvogue etc.) conformed to the Establlished Church, Owing to the peculiar transformation of his name it has been extremely difficult to trace Wallis' origin. His real name however appears to Walsh and it looks as if the Walshe's of Piltown (West Waterford) branch to which he belonged anglicised or rather modernised the name of Wallis. The subject of the present remarks was evidently a connection of the celebrated Sir Nicholas Walsh, Chief Justice