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Parish priest blesses unmarked
graves
28.04.09
“These small children
are saints in heaven”
by Linda McGrory
A LOCAL historian in Inishowen is working with a
parish priest in search of unmarked graves
containing the remains of unbaptised babies and
infants buried in times gone by. Fr Paddy O'Kane,
parish priest of Moville, has begun seeking out the
rural burial grounds of scores of infants whom the
Catholic Church would not bury in consecrated ground
because they died before baptism. Unbaptised babies
were buried like this right up until the 1960s.
Fr O'Kane said he was glad to be fulfilling a
promise he made to parishioners shortly after he
moved to the Moville area. |
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"Before the Vatican
Council, the Church taught that children who died
before baptism went to a place called Limbo and were
not allowed to be buried in consecrated ground,"
explained Fr O'Kane. "Thankfully, the Church has
changed her teaching and now believes a God of mercy
will not prevent them from being welcomed into
heaven. So burials now take place in family graves."
Carrowmenagh-based historian John A McLaughlin has
been liaising with the local parish priest in
locating the burial grounds. During Easter week, he
took around a dozen people including the local
parish priest to a number of unmarked burial grounds
in the townlands of Mossyglen, Tremone, Carrowmenagh
and Lecamey. Poignantly, some children had also been
buried in the ditch of Ballinacrae graveyard. Fr
O'Kane said this was because families wanted their
infants to be buried as close to their relatives as
possible.
He described how John A McLaughlin led him to some
very remote rural locations in parts of fields
hidden among the undergrowth and whin bushes.
"I blessed the plots, prayed for the families of the
children and for forgiveness for the Church for any
hurt caused by the harsher attitudes of a former
age.
"These small children are now saints in heaven and
do not need our prayers," added Fr O'Kane. He also
outlined how Fr Brian Brady had undertaken similar
blessing ceremonies when he was parish priest of
Malin.
Meanwhile, John A said it was not difficult to lead
Fr O'Kane to the unmarked graves. "Our generation
would know these unmarked sites very well from when
we were growing up as children. When we walked home
at night, we would pass them as quickly as possible.
We had a fear but also a reverence for these
graves," he said. During the Easter outing, Fr
O'Kane also blessed the unmarked graves of two adult
men. "The first was under a whin bush in the Sheskin
where a man called 'Manus the Rib' had been buried
in the no-man's land between the two townlands, thus
doubling the rejection of church and community for
his actions, as he had hanged himself. The other
spot was at Portabhaid, Tremone Bay, where a drowned
sailor had been washed ashore and buried on the
nearest sandbank," he added. Meanwhile, it is
anticipated that an open-air Mass will be held this
summer at the Mass Rock at Ballymagarraghy,
overlooking Tremone Bay, to remember all the people
who suffered for their religion during Penal times. |
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