Will the dead save the
living?
Hard on the heels of
last month's story deploring
plans to shift human
remains from a nuns'
burial ground in Cork,
Little
Nelly to make way
for a developer to build
an apartment block and
office buildings, attention
is now focused on the
discovery of 700 skeletal
remains in a burial
ground lying in the
path of the controversial
Ballyshannon by-pass
road in Donegal.
Following the initial
discovery of six or
seven graves, archaeologists
were summoned to the
site at Ballyhanna,
near the abandoned Great
Northern Railway line,
and soon discovered
they were only a small
segment of a much larger
burial ground, dating
back to the period 1100
A.D. to 1400 A.D.
Coins buried with one
body dated back to 1250
A.D.
What seems unbelievable
is the claim that no
knowledge of the site
existed among the local
population. That, simply,
is not true.
It was always understood
by people living in
the vicinity that a
church building of some
sort had once stood
on the spot. In fact,
persons who walked the
uneven ground stretching
from the Higginstown
Road to the Ballinacarrick
Road, something which
one closely associated
with this e-zine did
in his youth, were aware
of the fact that the
site had historical
significance. It was
by no means a popular
stroll because of the
nature of the terrain.
In hindsight the site's
recent identification
as "a Cistercian
'church of ease'
burial ground for people
who lived beside the
River Erne", may
well have been the reason
that a small area on
the south side of the
Erne remained in the
parish of Kilbarron
rather than the parish
of Innismacsaint. The
mother chapel of the
Cistercians was the
Abbey of Assaroe on
the north side of the
river.
That at the moment may
be conjecture. What
is solid fact is that
once more the graves
of the dead are under
threat if the planned
route of the by-pass
road is not altered.
That alteration should
be accompanied by a
necessary second change,
the re-routing of the
by-pass through the
town of Ballyshannon
itself. At present its
planned route will cut
the town in quarters,
steering business to
other centres, and once
more will show a callous,
uncaring disregard for
the wishes of local
inhabitants.
It remains to be seen
if Requiescat in Pace
still means anything
in "the island
of pavers and cementers".
Maybe the dead in Ballyhanna
will yet save the living
in Ballyshannon.
--30--
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