Plague graves in Ireland

Fuinseog

Does anyone know if any graves from The Black Death have been uncovered in this country? Thousands died from it, yet apparently no plague graves have been uncovered. were the bodies burnt? hardly if they were Catholic.

By contrast famine graves from 1847 are everywhere.

gizmo555

The placename Tallaght is derived from the Irish támh leacht, meaning a plague burial place. The earliest mention of Tallaght in recorded history is the account of Parthalon in the Annals of the Four Masters. Parthalon, a Greek prince, was one of the early invaders of Ireland. A plague killed 9,000 of his followers in one week. Their burial place is thought to be Tallaght and its environs and so the place came to be named Táimleacht Muintire Parthalon, the plague grave of Parthalon’s people. However, the burials which have been found in the Tallaght area are all normal pre-historic interments, mainly of the Bronze Age, and nothing suggesting a mass grave has so far been recorded here.


http://www.southdublinhistory.ie/content.aspx?area=Tallaght&type=history

I think they built the Square on top of it . . .

TroutMask

i think if there's a skull on the headstone, it's a plague victim's resting place. I've seen them, just can't remember where (not in Dublin)

cormacocomhrai

Fuinseog wrote: »

Does anyone know if any graves from The Black Death have been uncovered in this country? Thousands died from it, yet apparently no plague graves have been uncovered. were the bodies burnt? hardly if they were Catholic.

By contrast famine graves from 1847 are everywhere.

Great idea for a thread. Unfortunately Tallaght is the only placename I can think of.

pedroeibar1

Leopardstown in Dublin. (D18?) Baile na labhair (sp?) Not sure to when the name dates, but it should be Leperstown. Lots of graves up there now, but they are concrete Celtic Tiger ones

dubhthach

I think the broader question is how affected was Ireland by the Plague. The normal "historical narrative" as presented to us in School (from what I remember of Junior Cert History!) is that it mainly affected the Norman colony whereas there was less of an effect among the Gaelic Irish due to lack of large scale settlement etc. Now wether this is true or not I don't know, but it is population density in Ireland in the 14th century was considerably lower then say England. That and perhaps there is more continunity of settlement in England. Here there seems to be lots of abadoned manorial villages etc. (crop marks etc.)

Jolly Red Giant

Fuinseog wrote: »

Does anyone know if any graves from The Black Death have been uncovered in this country? Thousands died from it, yet apparently no plague graves have been uncovered. were the bodies burnt? hardly if they were Catholic.

History Ireland article -

http://www.historyireland.com/volumes/volume9/issue4/features/?id=113582

Archeron

Afaik Blackpitts in the Liberties is one mass plague grave in Dublin.

Fuinseog

TroutMask wrote: »

i think if there's a skull on the headstone, it's a plague victim's resting place. I've seen them, just can't remember where (not in Dublin)

is that not just a memento mori? thee is one on the Lynch memorial window in Galway, but it is taken a normal graveyard.

in The black Death of 1398 14,000 people are supposed to have died from pestilence in Dublin alone. with all the building going on in recent years I cannot understand how no Black Death graves like in London have been uncovered.


I m not sure if Bullys Acre was around at this time. BTW, has anyone been? is it worth a visit?

Fuinseog

Archeron wrote: »

Afaik Blackpitts in the Liberties is one mass plague grave in Dublin.

is there still a place in the liberties called Blackpitts. where is it near?

pedroeibar1

Maria Kelly (who wrote the History Ireland article linked above) published a few books on the topic, one, The Great Dying – A History of the Black Death in Dublin I have not read. Her other book – A History of the Black Death in Ireland’ appears to be the one on which the H I article is based.

The latter book is very readable and informative but it has a very short and poor two-page index – e.g. Kerry is indexed for pages 39, 77 and 135 but does not appear on any of them. The Index does not list any entry for burials or graves. However, there are nine pages of bibliography.

Another possible source worth checking out for Dublin is ‘The Black Book of Christchurch’ [ed. A Gwynn, Anal. Hib., 16 (1946)]

Fuinseog

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

Maria Kelly (who wrote the History Ireland article linked above) published a few books on the topic, one, The Great Dying – A History of the Black Death in Dublin I have not read. Her other book – A History of the Black Death in Ireland’ appears to be the one on which the H I article is based.

The latter book is very readable and informative but it has a very short and poor two-page index – e.g. Kerry is indexed for pages 39, 77 and 135 but does not appear on any of them. The Index does not list any entry for burials or graves. However, there are nine pages of bibliography.

Another possible source worth checking out for Dublin is ‘The Black Book of Christchurch’ [ed. A Gwynn, Anal. Hib., 16 (1946)]

thanks for that. I picked up her book second hand recently and that is what got me interested in the topic in the first place. she says no graves have been uncovered, which seems hard to believe.