A week of revisiting and remembering

A group of souls braved the sheeting rain on July 30 to meet at the disused Creevagh Graveyard close to the Newport Road Industrial Estate. During the 19th century, it had been ‘reopened’ to cater for famine victims on the Demesne side of the town while The Rocky (off the Leenane Road) was used for the workhouse dead.

Other unmarked and unused graveyards include The Paddock and the Ballinrobe Road/Sandyhill area.

Creevagh is in Kilmeena Parish in the Barony of Burrishoole. There is a tradition of locating graveyards close to boundaries of townlands, parishes or baronies. (Incidentally, the new Westport GAA football grounds are also in the parish of Kilmeena parish and the Burrishoole barony.)

Some years ago Mayo County Council had the area fenced off with a ten-metre buffer zone following a survey (by Richard Gillespie) ahead of the further development of the industrial park. A rath (fort) located a couple of hundred metres away from the graveyard, not listed on any official site or monuments record, was built over during the construction of one industrial unit many years ago.

Charlie Keating, Paddy Guthrie and Tommy Doyle provided the history of Creevagh and the area (Westport House’s former dairy was nearby with its unique Jersey herd), while Noelene Beckett-Crowe read a powerful poem specially written for the occasion. Charlie sang a Clare Island song; it is believed many of the famine dead in this area came from the island. A wooden cross was nailed to a tree in the graveyard to serve as a marker. A moment of silence was observed and a prayer offered for those resting there.

A photographic exhibition, ‘Westport – Old Faces and Places’, is still running at Westport Library and is definitely worth a visit. Keith Martin, librarian at the facility, still coming to terms with the photo of himself included.

Westport anglers Toby Gibbons, Seán Moogan and Paul Moody were able fishing tutors on the Mall to a group of excited children on Friday, with two fish caught.

Later, Westport placenames presenter John O’Callaghan marvelled at Eibhlín Geraghty’s take on the Killeenacoff placename as ‘wood of the cuckoos’ – cillín na gcuach. Killahoor (featured in J O’Callaghan’s column in this paper last week) also drew much discussion, from kite to talc to froth to ‘let’s just call it Sandyhill!’.

Ollie Whyte was on hand with camera in hand (now posted on his You Tube channel) to record participants in Tea, Cakes & Poetry. A wonderfully entertaining afternoon with Richard White in fine form. Currys’ yellow tops and Maura and Bendy Flynn provided treats. Fr Gerard Moran dispensed the blessing.

Charlie Keating entertained the previous evening with new and old local songs from his recent album, ‘Westport of the Welcomes’. Mattie Quinn’s lyrics rest neatly alongside the beautiful Peggy Browne by Turloch O’Carolan.

John Hoban opened Covie Week proceedings in Westport Library with readings from his new book, ‘Sound Men and Women’, interspersed with songs, tunes and stories. A glorious evening of tenderness and enjoyment was had by all.

This was bookended on closing night with a most interesting discussion on FNT –Foilseacháin Náisiúnta Teoranta – one-time owner of The Mayo News and publisher of the national Irish-language newspaper Inniú as well as many Irish-language books. Cormac Ó Cionnaith provided an overview, while Julie Connolly regaled us with her stories from back in the days of her first full-time job and Pádraig Geraghty (still with The Mayo News despite his ‘supposed’ retirement!) entertained us effortlessly with his tales.

Memories of wrapping weekly papers by hand for posting, Tony Moore’s foray into buying overalls for colleagues or trying to overtake the bus before Newport to load it up with Achill papers, the perpetual lack of ‘í’ letterpress blocks for FNT’s Irish-language paper Inniu, getting into films for free (Lizzie Nealis!), reprinting ‘Memories of a Mayo Man’, Joe Kenny telling Pádraig on his first day (54 years ago) that ‘the paper mightn’t be around next week!’.

Prompted to say a few impromptu words, the editor of the Opinion and Living sections of The Mayo News, Ciara Moynihan, spoke about the value that staff at the newspaper continue to place on its readers and the many communities of Mayo.

Traolach Ó Conghaile highlighted important Irish book publications by FNT, most notably Máirtín Ó Cadhain’s powerhouse, ‘Cré na Cille’ – typed up by Joe Kenny, despite his lack of proficiency in Gaeilge, and printed on James Street, Westport. An extract was read beautifully by Caoimhe Ní Chonghaile.

A most memorable week, thanks to all.

(This picture above is a still from one of the many Covie Week videos available on Dr Oliver Snr Whyte’s YouTube channel.)