ballyseedygraveyard

Reilig Bhaile Ó Síoda

Church Ruins

The history of the chapel ruin in Ballyseedy graveyard is a little obscure. The ruin of the chapel is located in the north-western corner of the graveyard. In a record from 1417 it states that a Patrick Offighillig was vicar of Balissidia (King 1931, 21), and that this medieval parish church was in ruins in 1756 and its patron was the Blennerhassett family in whose demesne lands the church was built.

It was a simple structure of one room, the nave. Its dimensions are 48ft long by 19ft 6ins wide, and it possibly had a thatched roof. The walls, which are 3ft thick, are built of local quarried lime stone. The window in the east gable is formed of brown sandstone and limestone. There was also a window in the west gable but it was destroyed and filled up with modern mason work.

The topographical dictionary of Ireland 1837, reports that the church was a ruin at that time and masses were then celebrated in the school house in Farmer’s bridge until the existing Ballyseedy Church of Ireland was built circa 1840.

There are parish records of marriages having taken place here in the eighteenth century. William Williams (no address stated) and a Cecelia Moor from Kilgobbin are recorded as being married in Ballyseedy Church of Ireland in 1713. As a result of all the headstone inscriptions in the graveyard being documented by Noel Griffin in 2010, it was found that the earliest headstone with a date recorded was 1740.

For many years Ballyseedy Graveyard lay neglected and forgotten apart from the efforts of local people who, from time to time did their best to maintain it, and indeed also for many years politicians of all ranks were implored to get things done about the condition of the graveyard. Following the death of a local man (Peter Griffin), Ballyseedy in 2009, his family had to cut a pathway through the dense overgrowth to access the family grave for his burial. At this time the entire graveyard was covered in tall grass, weeds, briars, heavy undergrowth and rampant ivy consumed the tombs and walls. In the months that followed his family continued to spend a lot of time clearing the graveyard to the point where one could walk the entire area. At this stage there was considerable public interest in the work being done. In October 2009 a committee was formed to ensure that this work would not be in vain and also to preserve, restore and maintain the graveyard, this committee has dwindled considerably to its present state.

Mission Statement

Tomb of Archdeacon Rowan Blennerhassett

Archdeacon Rowan was the founder and editor of the Kerry Magazine, which ran from 1854 to 1856 and was devoted to the history and antiquities of the county. A leading figure in the public life of Tralee for nearly four decades, he worked tirelessly for the advancement of the town and its people. He was a high Tory and a staunch upholder of the established order, but also a harsh critic of upper class indolence. Rowan played a pivotal role in the construction of the ship canal and was one of the most energetic organisers of relief in the Tralee and Castlegregory areas during the famine. As the last Provost of Tralee, he presided over the dissolution of the old oligarchal corporation in 1842, when he handed over power to an elected body, the newly constituted Town Commission.

Arthur Blennerhassett Rowan was born in Arabela House, Ballymacelligott, in October 1800.

Shortly after his birth his parents moved to High Street in Tralee, where his sister Arabella was born in 1806. Raised in an atmosphere of plain living and high thinking, Rowan went into the Church and was appointed curate-in-charge of Blennerville in 1825. Later in the same year he married Alicia, daughter of Peter Thompson, treasurer of Co Kerry.

The couple soon afterwards moved into Belmont House, which the bride’s father had built on Ballyard Hill, overlooking the River Lee. Rowan belonged to the new school of evangelical clergy that transformed and revitalized the Kilgobbin parish in 1846 and Archdeacon of Ardfert ten years later.

Rowan had the assistance of several able contributors during his editorship of the Kerry Magazine, but wrote most of the articles himself. His published work reflects his diverse interests, which ranged from ogham stones, history, geology, and ornithology to poetry, theology, the Italian Renaissance and the search for the elusive North-west Passage. The stern moralist and dry antiquary of Belmont was evidently a romantic at heart. He died in 1861 and was buried in Ballyseedy churchyard, but something of his character and ability later reappeared in his grand-niece, Cecily Isabel Fairfield – better known as Rebecca West the novelist.

John Donovan was one of Tralee’s greatest entrepreneurs. Born in Killarney in 1782, he came to the County capital as a young man and leased a spacious yard on the south side of the square in Tralee. Donovan imported cargos of timber, coal, iron and slate from the UK and North America on a regular basis and supplied a large proportion of the material used in the early 19th century growth and development of Tralee. He was the leading figure in the burgeoning and mainly Catholic mercantile society of the period. Between 1848 and 1856 the ‘Jeanie Johnston’ was Donovan’s most important ship, carrying emigrants on the outward journey to Quebec and the all-important cargo on the return voyage.

John Donovan built the tomb in Ballyseedy in 1838, almost thirty years before John himself was laid to rest in it. It is likely that the deaths of two of his sons in the 1830s

prompted the building of the tomb.

John Jr. (13) died in 1833, and Edward (12) died in 1838. John’s wife Catherine is also buried in the tomb. John Donovan died in April 1864. This provided his sons with the opportunity to demonstrate in lavish style an extravagant and elaborate funeral as befitted their status in the business community of Tralee.

A three-layer coffin system was used to carry his remains: an inner deal coffin, which was enclosed by a lead coffin, and then an outer coffin of oak. It was then placed in a hearse drawn by four fully decorated horses.

He lay in state for five days in his house in the square, Tralee. In the funeral cortège, The Kerry Evening Post reported that there were 174 carriages, the majority of which were drawn by two horses. (A two-horse carriage indicated greater social standing than a one-horse carriage). In all there would have been well over 300 horses thronging the centre of Tralee. The Tralee Chronicle reported a cortège of about two miles long: “the first of the mourners had disappeared into the woods of Ballyseedy, when the close of the funeral cars were descending the south-eastern side of the “mile height”,’ On arrival at Ballyseedy the coffin was borne into the graveyard by workmen from the firm.

Tomb of John Donovan

Progress of Work 2016

Items of work accomplished in 2016:

Re-erection of Langan and Shaughnessy headstones and one other cross (no inscription) by the north wall of the graveyard.
Repositioning of Bourke headstone from where it was discarded in graveyard.
A stop put in place to prevent the small access gate from opening on to the roadway.
Refurbishment of Rowan tomb
Stabilisation of headstone on Cashel tomb
Resealing of two open tombs where human remains were visible – one inside fence adjacent to church ruin and one at the northwest corner of graveyard

With these works being done it has inspired people who visit the graveyard to refurbish and maintain their own family plots, notably in the past few months:

The refurbishment on the Huggard tomb & Clifford headstone
The cleaning of both Murray headstones
Erection of new memorial plaque on one of the O’Connor graves
Refurbishment of Prendergast grave
Cleaning of Hanafin tomb

Ballyseedy Graveyard