The Parish Cemeteries of Kilmacow

03/10/2026

Spent a lovely sunny afternoon at Dunkitt painting railings and clearing some areas.

We had the pleasure of welcoming some OG members back into the group and they were more than happy to get stuck in. Though they were quite vocal about the absence of tea and the famous fruit cake that Kathleen Laffan used to bring each week. Would anyone have a recipe for fruit cake???!!!

We will be back in Dunkitt next week with more paint, as we ran out today! Hope to finish off the railings next week, weather permitting.

25/09/2026

Got more painting done at Dunkitt this week and plan to do more tomorrow. The weather looks as if it should be dry.

We also plan to do more strimming and a general clean up. The recent heat and rain combo means the growth has really taken off. Anyone else cutting their grass more than once a week?

See you tomorrow at 2.

18/09/2026

Another great day at Dunkitt despite only having a small crew.

We managed to clear more from some of the graves and got started on the painting of the railings.

We have a few ready to go in Ullid, but last Saturday didn't suit them. We plan to meet in Dunkitt tomorrow from 2-4pm to do more painting. Don't worry about today's rain, its meant to to fine tomorrow x

08/09/2026

Never knew this about yew trees.

Every Irish yew in the world, in every churchyard from Dublin to New Zealand, is a cutting taken from one tree found on a Fermanagh hillside.

Around 1767 a farmer named George Willis is said to have come across two odd yew saplings on the limestone slopes of Cuilcagh in County Fermanagh. Instead of the low spreading shape of an ordinary yew, they grew straight upward in a dense dark column. He kept one for himself and gave the other to the landlord at Florence Court, and the Florence Court tree is still standing.

The mutation is female and it does not come true from seed, so the only way to make another one is to take a cutting. That is exactly what happened, over and over, for two and a half centuries, until the descendants of that single tree stood in graveyards on every continent where the language of the parish register was English.

The columnar yew in your local churchyard is not a variety. It is a clone, and it is Irish, and it is all one tree.

06/09/2026

Got a lot done on Saturday in Dunkitt.
Some of us concentrated on the Todd Family plot while others were busy strimming.

The Todd family plot appears to be a triple plot surrounded by railings. There is a table tomb which is a large rectangular top slab and it is raised up on 6 short legs or pillars. There are then 2 standing headstones, one of which is collapsed face down and the other at quite an angle.

We had strimmed the whole graveyard a few weeks back and had planned a second one but we hadn’t got around to raking yet and with the rain and the new growth it was harder than it looked.

With a lot of the growth cut back we found that when you stop the work to chat, it’s the best time to notice new things.

The trees are doing damage and there are signs of subsidence or ground movement throughout the graveyard. Many of the old historical monuments are at risk. So we are doing our best to photograph them all while we can. We will be sending a full report to Regina Fitzpatrick, the heritage officer at Kilkenny county council.

Next week we are going to split the group. Those who want to do strimming and heavier work will be at Ullid from 2-4. The eircode for the house beside Ullid graveyard is X91 WC58. The graveyard is just behind the house.

Those who would like to do lighter work and paint some railings will be going to Dunkitt - weather dependent.

See you next week

01/09/2026

Still at Old Dunkitt after taking a break for the Iverk Show.

On August 15th we only had 2-4 volunteers in the heat but we manged to get a lot done. We even managed to find a headstone lying face down. We also found out that ants can attack! We had been kneeling down for a little bit too long to try and figure out the "new" headstone.

Last Saturday we had a visit by the 3 generations of the Richards family who are hoping to restore the family grave. They found the headstone themselves a while back and it was lying buried under vegetation. They had located a copy of a transcription of the headstone from years ago so knew it was there ... somewhere. Considering the age of the headstone it is in almost pristine condition. We even managed to get a new volunteer!

They have done amazing research on the family and we are looking to find out more about the people in the grave. Its stories like these that really make our work worthwhile.

We had planned on a lot of strimming last Saturday but with the rain it had to be put on hold. We will be in Old Dunkitt this Saturday (5th) from 2-4pm. See you there.

14/08/2026

We had a great group last week up at Old Dunkitt.

Got loads of strimming done and cut back loads of vegetation inside the railings of a few tombs. It was a very hot day and we brought up a big box of chocolates thinking we would have them after we were done, but the heat was melting them so we had to eat them at the start. Life is hard sometimes.

Then after we were done we were given icecreams which went down very well in the heat. Thanks again Jo.

We will be in Old Dunkitt again tomorrow from 2-4 pm so feel free to join us. The following week, 22nd August, is the Iverk show so we will not be meeting at the graveyards that day.

26/07/2026

What an amazing day we had yesterday at Ballynamorahan Graveyard and Kilcronagh house.

25 descendants of one of the graves we look after, Clementina Bartolucci nee Dundas, traveled from around the world to come and honour their family.

They stayed in the Pembroke Hotel in kilkenny and first visited Borrmount House in Enniscorthy and then came to visit the grave in Ballynamorahan.

The grave which has been wonderfully restored by Richie with the kerbstones realigned and the railings reset. Some of the pieces of the headstone and cross were found buried at the foot of the monument and are now restored. (We had received permission from the heritage council to carry out the work and all repairs were overseen by the Heritage officer in Kilkenny, Regina Fitzpatrick who was with us yesterday to welcome the family).

Afterwards we went up to Kilcronagh House where Tommy and Denise Quinlan welcomed the group for afternoon tea on the lawn. Their ancestors Clementina and Vincenzo Bartolucci lived in the house with their 7 children in the 1860s-1870s.

One of the visitors commented that they were sad to think that Clementina was all alone here in Kilmacow and forgotten about but when they saw the work that our group does voluntarily and how we look after her they were nearly in tears. It really brings home to us as a group how important our work is and to see the joy on their faces is so rewarding.

Next Saturday we will take a break for the bank Holiday and we will be back the following week, 8th August, at the graveyard in Dunkitt.

If anyone would like to come along and see the work we do or even help out, you are more than welcome x

17/07/2026

We will be back at Ballynamorahan again tomorrow from 2-4.

We managed to clear around the gates and a few trees last week. We are thinking that all the like trees were planted as they are all equidistant apart and not random. Once the saplings were cut the trunk looks fabulous. The photos below don’t really do it justice.

See you on Saturday at 2pm

11/07/2026

The wonderful thing about working in graveyards that are very overgrown on a day like today, is the shade. Plenty of shade. See you at 2.