Unbaptised babies buried at a historical burial site in Abbeyleix, Co Laois will never be forgotten as Laois County Council have given the green light for a memorial to be constructed in their honour.
Money was raised to provide a proper memorial for the unbaptised babies who were buried in unmarked graves at Tonduff Cillín in Abbeyleix.
Cillín sites were used across Ireland to bury unbaptised babies, primarily stillbirths or children who died before they had the opportunity to be baptised.
The Tonduff Cillín committee have now received confirmation that the plans for a burial plot including a piece of commemorative stone have been agreed by Laois County Council.
Area engineer, Wes Wilkinson and Laois Heritage Officer, Thomas Carolan gave the go-ahead for the project along with a number of conditions.
The initial plans for a stone sculpture and reflection seat to be erected at the burial site in Ballytarsna, Abbeyleix has changed slightly due to health and safety concerns.
The reflection seat, alongside a QR code that visitors can scan to read about the burial site, will now be located in a community reflection area at the North end of the town close to the Abbeyleix Heritage House Museum.
"Because of Health and safety concerns in this area it is now agreed that the reflection seat and QR code will now be relocated to a community reflection area at the North end of the town close to the Abbeyleix Heritage House Museum," explained local historian and Tonduff Cillín committee member Noel Burke.
"There is a group of bereaved mothers that live in our community who attend a prayer service every October to remember the sad loss of their own babies, it will now be their intention to also use this community area when completed early this year to reflect on all the babies that were buried at the Abbeyleix Tonduff Cillín, as well as the loss of their own babies.”
At the burial site itself in Tonduff, the plan is to now erect a piece of natural stone marking the Cillín burial site with text written in both English and Irish.The Parish Priest for the area, Fr. Paddy Byrne will also celebrate a mass at the Tonduff Cillín site on April 23 at 7pm.
Mr. Burke is a long-time advocate for the babies buried at Tonduff Cillín and set up the original Go Fund Me page in January to raise funds for the project.
“This is the time now to recognise that yes the Catholic Church’s teaching on the subject of how they dealt with the unbaptised babies in our dark past was wrong. It was described as not being Christian by our own very popular parish priest Fr. Paddy Byrne,” explained Mr. Burke.
"How the parents of the unbaptised had to cope and deal with the loss of their babies, a practice that continued right up until the early part of the 1960s, can you just imagine how these parents felt as they had to bury their babies in the dark of night in a rural location, in a burial plot that was unconsecrated.”
Noel added: "The emotional suffering that these parents felt just because they were unable to comply with the Church’s teaching at the time for one reason or another was just unimaginable. The parents were further forbidden to talk about the loss of their baby, or their experience to any other member of their family, neighbours or friends at the time.”
Alongside Mr. Burke, a number of other people and groups have been instrumental in getting recognition for the unbaptised babies buried in unmarked graves at Tonduff Cillín.
"We want to thank our Parish Priest, Fr. Paddy Byrne a man of the people, he's a very popular man in our community,” enthused Mr. Burke.
“We also want to thank the Abbeyleix Women's Development Group for given up all their free time knitting Easter egg covers with all the proceeds going towards the Tonduff Cillín Go-Fund me account.
"The Go-Fund me account will remain open until just after the Easter ceremonies. The money collected will maintain both sites for many years to come.”