Survey Data
Reg No
30329008
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Historical, Social
Original Use
Graveyard/cemetery
In Use As
Graveyard/cemetery
Date
1880 - 1920
Coordinates
71161, 257559
Date Recorded
12/08/2008
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Letterfrack Industrial School graveyard, opened c.1890, containing marked burials of seventy-eight children, of whom sixty-one died in the Christian Brothers' industrial school nearby. Burials marked by heart-shaped stones on stone slab. Monument in north-west half comprises white concrete cross mounted in base and having inscribed limestone plaques to each face with prayer and names of those who died in the industrial school. Low rubble stone boundary wall encloses graveyard, having rendered gate piers with wrought-iron gates. Pebbled pathway leads downhill to road where there is a second rubble stone boundary wall with rendered gate piers having wrought-iron gates.
Appraisal
This sombre graveyard contains the interred remains of seventy-eight young boys, sixty-one of whom died in the adjacent industrial school run by the Christian Brothers. The graveyard was recently restored to honour the memory of the children, many of whose short lives were blighted by appalling mistreatment.