Relics of the Penal Days About seventy years ago a man named James Purcell lived in Cellarstown in the parish of St John's about three miles from the city of Kilkenny, The family was poor but of the hard working type. James worked with a man called Pat Nolan and was often helped in the support of his large family by his wife Mary, a gentle kindhearted woman of about forty years of age at the time. There eldest son Paddy was a delicate youth of about thirteen years of age. He always wished to become a priest and although she knew that they couldn't possibly afford to pay for him in College his mother encouraged his youthful aspiration. On a beautiful May eveningAlison Kehoe