Graveyards move into digital age in Mountnugent area

Sean McMahon

Those going in search of their ancestors in the Mountnugent area will find the task much easier, courtesy of a cross-community project that has digitised the location and detail on the headstones in all three graveyards in the parish of Mountnugent/Ballinacree. 

The information relating to Kilbride, Killeagh and St Bride's Church of Ireland in Mountnugent village is now available online at graveyards.ie . Numbers appear before all the names on the database and these correspond to a specific plot on a map of the graveyard. The information board also features the maps and some relevant historical information. The actual digitisation was carried by a firm called Irish Graveyards with Michael Durkin at the helm in County Mayo.
Richard Moeran was one of those on the committee. He said that they examined the records from St Bride's Church of Ireland in the village going back 150 years and these were transcribed.
“I must say that the funding has, from a community perspective, brought all churches together on a similar project,” he said, adding that everyone has learned something about the history of their own community in the process.
Mr Moeran further explained that there is a crypt in the graveyard at St Bride's Church and it contains Nugent family members going back around 200 years. Sir Oliver Nugent who commanded the Ulster Division in World War 1 and was the longest serving general in World War 1. He is buried beside the church. The graveyard dates back to the year 1804.
Another member of the group is Richard Kilroy, the Church of Ireland Warden for the Parish. He told The Anglo-Celt that his particular interest was Killeagh Mixed Graveyard and members of his family are buried there. He is hopeful that the exercise can be repeated in other parishes across the county and nationwide. He pointed out that Killeagh graveyard was overgrown with briars some years ago and a lot of people have worked hard in the interim to put it right.
Tess Brady told The Anglo-Celt that it was a wonderful being involved with such lovely project and commended Seamus and Bernard Smith who did Trojan work in the Kilbride graveyard to unearth what was written on the various headstones.
Noel Connell said that funding was provided by Cavan County Council to assist the project, while the local community also did a lot of fundraising for the initiative.
Meath County Council also came on board and provided funding for various aspects of the project in the Killeagh graveyard, including the sign, work on the trees and for the future restoration of the gate.
Seamus Smith told The Anglo-Celt that there was a derelict church in Kilbride in 1609.
He added that, in 1539, the agents of Henry 8th took over the Abbey in Kells and a lot of the lands. They then gave the lands to a man called Gerard Fleming who was based in Cabra, the old name for Kingscourt. It was Fleming who donated the book of Kells to Trinity Collage.
The earliest headstone in the Killbride Graveyard is 1729 and the earliest headstone in Killeagh is 1709.
“In Killeagh there were three churches – a Catholic one which was taken over in 1539 and was knocked in the mid 1600s and then re-built; then the Protestant church was built there in the early 1800s,” said Mr Smith. It is understood that it was closed for worship around 1939 and was later demolished.
Richard Kilroy says that the Church of Ireland section of the graveyard in Killeagh is still being used for burials.