Why there?

The road sign for Old Kyle Cemetery made me stop, back up and head in that direction. It was on my list of places worth visiting but I couldn’t remember why. Arriving there was no help. It was indeed ’old’ and so neglected I couldn’t see anything of interest. There was no information board.

I climbed the style and went in as far as I could looking for a central mound, the usual give-away clue to an ancient monastic site but shrubs and ivy dominated. 

I took a few photos in case I was missing something and drove down the road to where a man was cutting his front lawn. I asked whether I had been to the right place.  It seems I had. It was the burial place of a famous saint as its original name, Clonfertmulloe (‘The Meadow of Mo-lua’s Grave’), indicated. There had been some ancient crosses there but they that had been moved for safekeeping.

That was enough for me to go to the internet and be surprised. Photos taken in November 2015 showed neat graves, St Mo-lua’s burial place, the saint’s ‘trough’, bullaun stones, and ancient cross slab and architectural fragments

The cross had been moved before my visit but the rest are probably still there, buried somewhere.  A plaque at the entrance said the cemetery had been restored 1990- 2001 but obviously little had been done since.     

Mo-lua like many of his generations of pioneers was a much travelled man. I first came across his name in the Slieve Bloom Mountains on a Holy Well.

He had studied under Comghall in Bangor, founded a centre at Drumsnatt in Monaghan and then at Killaloe (Cell of Lua), no mean city.   His first settlement there was on Friars Island but he moved down the Shannon to the present town.

However town life didn’t suit him. There is a story that he left because he was being pestered by the local women who wanted to see a saint. It gave him a reputation of being very strict with women but in Ireland the stricter a saint the more popular he became.

He moved on to a quieter place – now Old Kyle Cemetery—where he died in 609.  If he was looking for solitude he finally got his wish, there are few places as lonely or neglected as Clonfertmulloe today.

I was lucky with the speculative photos I took there. They include what turned out to be the ivy-covered remains of the church and the bullaun stone with is its fabled five hole – where the saint left the marks of his knees, clasped hands and a pool of his tears. However I missed his grave and other mementos.

Mo-lua got the solitude he wanted. If the neglect of the past ten years continues they might as well take down that sign to Old Kyle Cemetery.