School: Cromadh (B.)
- Location:
- Croom, Co. Limerick
- Teacher: Dáithí Ó Ceanntabhail
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0507, Page 204
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- (continued from previous page)There are some graveyards where the custom still obtains, of placing the coffin on the ground, or on specially erected slabs, outside the churchyard stile, and saying a decade of the rosary. The funeral procession kneeling about, before the coffin is taken into and borne around the graveyard to the grave. I have never seen it done, but it is still observed at Kilkeedy graveyard, Clarina parish, near Limerick city. The origin of the custom, according to our Sagart paroise, dates from the penal times and it recalls a method of evading a penal enactment against popish ceremonies within a graveyard on the occasion of a burial. When they could not pray at the burial proper, the people prayed, so to speak, in anticipation of it.In the same way, says my same informant, the custom of using "blessed clay", dates from the penal days. There was no priest present at the burial. He was on the run, but the people knew where to find him, and on the morning of the funeral, he blessed clay which was carried in a little linen or calico bag, and thrown into the grave, before the coffin was lowered. Some was also thrown on the coffin after it had been set down in the grave. I saw the "blessed clay" used when I was a boy.
