A History of Oppression
At times, it really does seem that Donaghmore and the Workhouse are at the epicentre of a sad and tragic history that hangs over Co. Laois.
We have Aghaboe Abbey (pictured below) which is only fifteen minutes from the Museum, with its legacy that highlights the frequent invasion and colonisation of Ireland.
Rathdowney, a key location in Co. Laois that saw intense Irish Resistance during the 1798 Rebellion (see The “Croppy’s” Grave in the Town Square – pictured below), the War of Independence and Civil War that followed. It is also the birthplace of one of Ireland’s most notorious serial killers. It is only five minutes down the road from the Museum.
There were two other Workhouses in Co. Laois. One would have been found in Abbeyleix, while the other had been built in Mountmellick. As with all Workhouses, they were dark and ominous symbols of English oppression. Unfortunately for students of history both are gone now, but you can find the Board of Guardians Minutes Books at Laois Local Studies (see resources below).
Just over the county border and no more than twenty minutes from Donaghmore, you would have found Roscrea Union Workhouse in Co. Tipperary, which you might call a sibling to Donaghmore Union Workhouse. For at least the first ten years of operations at Donaghmore, inmates were transferred between the two Workhouses.
Also found in Roscrea, you have Sean Ross Abbey where once a Magdalene Laundry operated. Its distressing history is now set in stone, unveiled for all the World to see when Philomena Lee released her story about the cruelty she and other mothers experienced within those grim walls.
These are just a mere handful of locations in Co. Laois, the surrounding areas, and throughout Ireland, that highlight its woeful history. However, in this post we are going to explore one of the sites in Co. Laois that visitors most often ask us about. Ballyquaid Mass Pit.
(Above is the altar at Ballyquaid Mass Pit, with inscription)
Visitors come in after having seen the road signs for Ballyquaid or after hearing one of our tour guides talk about the mass pit. The most common questions we get are as follows:
- What was the relationship between the Workhouse and the mass pit?
- How many people are buried there?
- Were any famine victims buried there?
- Are there plans to excavate the site?
Much to the surprise of our visitors, Ballyquaid is not the mass pit most people think it is. Our visitors, and most people for that matter, have this image in their minds of a big pit being opened, with hundreds of bodies being unceremoniously laid to rest there. While such mass pits exist in Ireland, this is not the case for Ballyquaid.
(Above is the Holy Water font at Ballyquaid Mass Pit, with inscription)
From 1695-1829, the Catholics of Ireland and Great Britain were harshly discriminated against when laws meant to marginalise and weaken the Catholic population were introduced. Catholics were barred from celebrating mass, owning land and firearms, from taking teaching positions, holding public office, and their right to provide their children with a religious education was denied. Additionally, if Catholics weren’t seen to partake in events held by the Anglican Church, they were fined or penalised in some other way. The Irish language and culture were also fiercely suppressed by these laws, stripping away the identity of the Irish people. These laws were known as the Penal Laws.
(Above is the placard found just inside the entrance to Ballyquaid Mass Pit)
In response, Irish Catholics began celebrating mass in secrecy. These secluded areas became known as ‘mass rocks’ or ‘mass pits,’ often held in fields and ditches, forests and high up in the mountains. Mass would be celebrated, weddings would be had, and funerals would be said, away from the prying eyes of the Anglican oppressors. Ballyquaid is one such mass pit. While it is of no surprise that records of these clandestine ceremonies that were performed at Ballyquaid were never formally written, it is likely that people were unified in marriage and laid to rest at these mass pits.
Interestingly, apparently there was a mass pit in Donaghmore too. Though no record exists of Donaghmore mass pit, the local population insists that it is just across the road from the Workhouse, deep in the fields and – as you might expect – off the well beaten track. Unfortunately, its exact location is disputed, and it is on privately owned land, therefore inaccessible to the public.
Regarding the relationship between Donaghmore and Ballyquaid, no record exists to suggest that there was one. We have heard of eyewitness stories of bodies leaving Donaghmore Union Workhouse on horse drawn carts, reportedly going to Ballyquaid and Bordwell Cemetery in Clogh (pictured below). Though unlikely, given that the Workhouse had its own burial grounds (often wrongfully described as a mass pit), without formal records we can’t say whether or not that these reports are true. That said, there were roughly thirty famines in the hundred years prior to An Gorta Mór, so famine victims may have been buried in Ballyquaid, just not victims of The Great Famine of 1845-1852.
One of the many atrocities that was done to the Irish people while Ireland was under English occupation, is not just the fact that records were destroyed, but that records weren’t even allowed to be written. It was nothing less than the erasure of Irish history, culture, and the memory of its people.
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