Bodies of four bishops and two priests buried in a crypt of St Muredach’s Cathedral in Ballina, Co Mayo, are to be exhumed and re-interred if a planning application to the town council is successful. The church authorities have sought approval to move the remains of the six churchmen because of the poor state of the underground crypt.
The bodies to be moved include that of Bishop Peter Waldron, who became bishop of Killala in 1815 and who first proposed the erection of a cathedral in Ballina.
The others are those of Bishop John Conmy who presided over the building of St Muredach’s College in 1906, Bishop Thomas Feeney, Bishop Hugh Conway and Fathers Martin Timlin and Michael Geraghty.
Parish Priest Fr Brendan Hoban explained that the crypt was examined some years ago when the cathedral was being restored and the bodies and coffins were found to be in a terrible condition.
At the time, the parish could not afford to remedy the problem but now had funds to do so and provide a new burial ground for future bishops of the diocese and priests of the cathedral parish.
He said that the proposal to move the bodies was being made out of respect for the men buried in the crypt and because the graveyard beside the cathedral is almost full.
Restoring the crypt was not feasible because the cathedral is built on a damp site which would continue to cause seepage, Fr Hoban added .
The approval of the town council for the work is necessary because St Muredach’s is a listed building.
The most recent burial in the crypt occurred in 1911, said Fr Hoban.
He said that if the exhumation proceeds, a liturgical ceremony would be held to mark the re-interment of the six sets of remains.
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