Thursday 11 April 2024
After
successfully finding the grave and village of John Marum yesterday, we decided
to go early this morning and see if we could find the abandoned Barony Church
and graveyard, just outside of Ballyragget, in fairly wealthy dairy country,
near Kilkenny. It is here, that 20 Marums (Richard’s brothers and his father)
from many generations are buried, including Richard the last (b 1716 - d 1803).
The line goes like this:
Roger
Phillips– Fred Phillips (F) – Edith Phillips nee Marum (GM) – Austin Marum GGF)
– Pierce Marum (GGGF) – Richard Marum (d 1810) (GGGGF) – Richard Marum (d 1803)
(GGGGGF). This last Richard had seven sons (Edmund, William, Richard, Pierce
(Parish Priest), Daniel, John (who was murdered) and Kyran (Bishop of Ossory).
The third son of Richard the last, also named Richard had a son called Pierce
Marum who married in 1833 and at the height of the potato famine, emigrated to
Australia with wife Alicia in 1841. They had 11 children. The youngest of these
was Austin, my GGF. His daughter, Edith was my nanna and Fred’s mother. I knew
her quite well and visited her on the farm as a little boy. Afterwards, she came
and lived with us until her death in 1973.
We
have the GPS coordinates of Barony from Historic Graves, Ireland and some
photos, so off we go. The weather has warmed up, 13C and the rain is holding
off.
We find the spot easily. It is 400 m off the road in the middle of a farmer’s dairy cow paddock, surrounded by Friesian cows, wet green grass and loads of cow manure/mud. Thankfully, the 100+ herd has already been milked this morning.
It’s a ruin, as are lots of things in Ireland. After knocking on what we believe is the farmer’s house and noting that no one is home, we confidently walk down the muddy path and across the paddock to the graveyard, undo the wire gate closer and trudge through knee high grass, over tombs, looking for headstones.
It’s
not a big graveyard that surrounds the old church ruin and stone surrounding
walls but it is clearly abandoned and uncared for. It is not surprising, that
after 200+ years of Irish weather, many of the inscriptions are very hard to
read.
We
were just about to give up when we discover Richard’s (the last) 1716-1803,
headstone and can just make out part of the inscription. “Here lies the body of
Richard Marum who dep this life on 16 Nov 1803 aged 87 years. Requuefcant
Pace. Amen.”
We
found the last traceable Marum. Another headstone bears the name Marum and we
believe has a number of the clan buried in the same plot but it is too
difficult to read more than “Marum.”
Obviously,
Richard’s seven sons from Edmund in 1746 to Kyran who died in 1827, were well
off folk, with a strong connection to farming. So too were the English Phillips
clan, who also emigrated to Australia and Frederick (GF) married my grandmother,
Edith Marum.
Feeling
pretty chuffed, we left a nice note at the farm house advising that we had been
to the site. Then we headed into Kilkenny.
However, by now the GPS was not talking to us, so old fashioned navigation got us there and we parked right next to the Cathedral. There are two cathedrals. We did get the right one – St Mary’s. It’s very opulent of course. As we entered, Flashy immediately knew the layout from his alter boy days. They’re all the same in Mick churches. Side altars for visiting priests to say Mass, stations of the cross down both sides and plenty of candles to light with donation boxes attached.
We found the board with Bishop Kyran’s name on it, proving that bit
of research was accurate. No sign of where his and the other bishop’s remains
are entombed, but they are here somewhere.
Flashy
spies a painting of St Peregrine, the patron Saint of Cancer Cure (really?).
Well, he’s gambled on worse odds, so he lights a candle for the Major and
others with health issues and looks for 50 cents to put in the box. All he has
is €10. Oh, well that should help things along a bit. Should have lit all the
candles!
A
quick photo op out the front with a statue of St Patrick, then across the road
for a pint of Guinness, before driving back home via Cashel and Tipperary in
what was now showery rain.
Along
the way, we discovered that the pixies had been out and about and turned the
road sign around. Doesn’t matter, Lady P ignores them anyway. We did get home
on the ‘N’ and ‘M’ roads without any issues.
Looks like Flashy may have rediscovered the faith, that will make his mother happy and thanks for paying over the going rate for my candle, we all need all the help we can get. Cheers, the Major
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