Burial Places

Over the centuries there were a number of geographical changes to the borders of Mountmellick parish. Prior to the late 18th Century, Mountmellick was largely served by a group of rural parishes which included Rosenallis and Castlebrack. These were originally part of the old territory of "Ui Riagain".

Graigue
On this site stood St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church. The church and cemetery date back to the 1700’s. St. Peter’s was the first Roman Catholic Church built in the Mountmellick urban area after the penal laws were relaxed. The oldest headstone is dated 1755.

St. Peter’s served the community in Mountmellick until the present Church of St. Joseph was built in Mountmellick Town in 1878. It then, housed a boys school until 1910. The foundations of the chapel are still visible today.

Castlebrack
Castlebrack Roman Catholic Church which was situated five miles north of Mountmellick, served the Mountmellick area from 1639 until 1770, when the parish became called Mountmellick and the parish church moved to Graigue. Castlebrack was the original home of the O’Dunn Clan dating from 1475. The Parish Church at Castlebrack was built by Lynagh Dunn in the 15th Century. He also built churches at Rearymore and Kilmanman, near Clonaslee. The remains of the walls of the church and graveyard indicates that it was a substantial building in its time. The church was destroyed in the Cromwellian period. The gravestones in Castlebrack date from 1749.

Rosenallis Quaker Burial Ground
Known locally as the Friends Sleeping Place, the Rosenallis burial ground is situated three miles north-west of Mountmellick. The first recorded burial is that of Isaac Jackson in 1664. However the oldest headstone inscription dates from 1800. A striking feature is the uniformity of the headstones, approximately three feet tall. The Quakers adopted their own unique dating system on headstones. They called each of the 12 months of the year by a number. The Quaker year began in March which they called the first month. This system continued until 1752.

St. Paul’s Church of Ireland
The graveyard which surrounds the church building is an oasis of peace and quietness in the busy town of Mountmellick. There are many interesting monuments and headstones here, and one of the oldest gravestones is dated 1709. A new extension to the graveyard was added in 1981.

Famine Burial Sites
"Battle my Bones over the stones, I am only a pauper that no one owns"

In penal times (1700’s) when Mass was forbidden, the mass pit in Derryguile was the only place for Catholic worship in the area. According to local folklore, the lookout tree used then, still stands today. The graveyard adjacent to the Mass pit was used for victims of the Great Famine in 1840’s. It continued to be used until 1905 but there were never gravestones on the site.

A paupers graveyard from famine times lies 1.5 miles north of Mountmellick. Known as Reilig, the Gaelic for graveyard, it was used for victims of the Great Famine, 1845-1849. There are no tombstones in the graveyard. Bodies were wrapped in shrouds and placed in the ground without coffins. No visible signs of this graveyard remain.