Groups audience:
Working with a Transition Year class from Ballinrobe Community College in Co. Mayo we surveyed the mortuary monuments in St. Mary's graveyard on Church Lane. The students numbered, photographed and read over 130 headstones in two days and we are publishing the survey over on https://historicgraves.com/graveyard/st-mary-s-church-ireland/mo-smci. The school survey was organised by county heritage officer Deirdre Cunningham as part of a Town & Villages Renewal Scheme.
When you get to grips with a graveyard you become immersed in the families and geography of a place. Ballinrobe town was founded out of the late 17th century turmoil which saw a new political elite gain control of the country. A bend in the river became a key strategic location in the need to control the peoples of west Mayo and an infantry barracks was built on a hill overlooking the river bend. We first encountered soldiers and soldier's families from this barracks the west end of St Mary's graveyard where up to 20 headstones can be read. Between the ruined barracks walls, mortuary monuments and fine building stock in Ballinrobe a rich 18th and 19th century built heritage survives all over the town.
By the mid-19th century though, the local elite's grip on affairs was slipping and the horrors of the Great Famine affected the different strata of society in different ways. In time we will pursue the detail of Famine burials in Ballinrobe but this dawn walk serves to introduce us to the town and key places within it.
