School: Gortnaskeagh (roll number 16321)
- Location:
- Gortnaskeagh, Co. Leitrim
- Teacher: Anna Nic Aodha
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0199, Page 146
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Gortnaskeagh
- XML Page 146
- XML “The Penal Times”
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
- In the penal times the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was not allowed to be celebrated in Ireland. The priests and Bishops of Ireland were hunted through the country and not allowed to say Mass. The English soldiers often came in search of the Catholics to see if they would find them attending Mass. After Mass the priest took off his Vestments and dressed in plain clothing so that he would not be known from any ordinary person. In this secret way the Catholics had to fulfil their religion.
Often the people had to attend Mass in all sorts of odd places where the soldiers would not find them. The only mass rock around this place was in a cave in the town land of Carickeany in the parish of Killasnett. The inner part of this cave is nine feet deep. The mouth of it is four feet wide. There are steps going down to a big room and there the people attended Mass. This cave is(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Michael Gilmartin
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Tawnymoyle, Co. Leitrim
- Informant
- Mr James Gilmartin
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Tawnymoyle, Co. Leitrim
