By Canon Tony King

(Athenry Parish Priest 1993-2013)

The general upkeep of the cemetery has been a continuing problem. While it is the responsibility of the Country Council very little has been done up to 1995 when a grant of £300 was offered to a community group to become involved in general maintenance. This was raised to £500 in the year 2000.  Next challenge was to raise awareness in the parish and encourage families to care for their family plot on a regular basis.

Cemetery Mass

What helped in a very significant was the celebration of Cemetery Masses in the week around August 15th each year and where there was a  public collection to provide some funding towards hiring men to do some extra work – e.g. paths, graves of families who have no living relatives and cleaning grass along walls etc.  2000 was set as a deadline to bring all the cemeteries of the parish into reasonable order.

New Cemetery, Athenry
                                                                                                                    New Cemetery, Athenry

New Cemetery  

Bobby Gardiner, Clarke St. and a small committee did a lot of work on the New Cemetery. About £2000 came annually from parishioners since 1997 towards general maintenance and he hired the necessary help to do extra work on a regular basis.  Extra ground had been purchased by the County Council in 1992 and this new section came into use in 1997.  Bobby did excellent work until he resigned in 2012 and Gerry Ryan with Tom Keane continue to supervise the maintenance.

Templemoyle
                                                                                                                                 Templemoyle, Newcastle.

Templemoyle

In 1995, a sub-committee of Newcastle Community Council undertook the supervision of building walls and doing the road to the Cemetery and work was carried out under a FAS scheme.  Malachy Madden, Bengarra led the voluntary group and  organised a clean-up of the cemetery and a cemetery fund was put in place from the collection at the Cemetery Mass was available for extra work to be undertaken. Excellent work has been done, a map of the cemetery has been erected, and further grave plots are now provided after a lot of consultation.

Willmount

This was a wilderness. A small committee organised by Eamon Gilligan Donal Jennings Coldwood and Julia Rooney with great community help transformed this cemetery. The Co. Council grant and funding from the New Cemetery Fund help out. The first Cemetery Mass was celebrated there in August 1999.  Since people are buried in this cemetery from Craughwell parish, Fr. Christy O’Connor P.P and Fr. Kevin Reaney C.C concelebrated.  

Moorpark

This cemetery was also in a state of neglect.  Again, some funding and the local community and helpers cut the grass and give a clean up to the place each August before the Cemetery Mass. After the Mass, the gathering enjoys the hospitality in Egans. The Lambert Vault, neglected over the years, bones and bits of coffins strewn around the vault were put into a “concrete coffin” and this was arranged by Finbarr O’ Regan.    The FAS scheme helped out and Bobby Gardiner supervised the work.

Teampall Geal 

The local community followed the lead given by Willmount and Donald Jennings, Cordwood, Jackie Frayne The Bridge, Derrydonnell, Tommy Forde Moyvilla and a group of helpers did great work in clearing up the place for the Cemetery Mass in August 2000.  In general the target of putting the cemeteries of the parish into reasonable condition by the year 2000 was met.  To keep cemeteries that are seldom used or visited in a respectful way needs constant encouragement and vigilance.  

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