Resting Roots
In the west of Ireland, nested in the corner of Galway Bay, there is an inlet…
In the west of Ireland, nested in the corner of Galway Bay, there is an inlet…
Within this inlet, beneath the gaze of the Burren, and spiralling round as another bay-within-a-bay, there is a little peninsula…
On this little, low-lying peninsula, there is a track…
Down this track, there are the ruins of a church, and a graveyard…
In this graveyard full of holes hidden by the grass and growth, just behind the sanctuary of the ruined church, there is a mausoleum…
In this mausoleum rest the remains of a family descended from French aristocrats.
They fled the French Revolution, and owned much land in the area.
They played an important role in Irish culture, and were said to have been generous during the famine.
Pray for the repose of their souls.
But who else is resting in this lonely graveyard?
In the East-most corner of this graveyard, there is a grave-plot…
In this grave-plot, which is slowly being overwhelmed by the hedgerow which it faces, rests a farmer, with his second wife, and their four year old daughter…
This grave is the root of our family's known line.
Pray for that farmer, and his second wife.
Their daughter, of course, already beholds the face of God.
May she pray for us.
… But what of his first wife?
She died after giving birth to twins.
Pray for the repose of her soul.
My family descends through her daughter, one of the twins.
The other, a boy, died with her.
Nobody knows where they now rest.
R.I.P.
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