Lecture on Co Roscommon Graveyard Headstones
A meeting of Co Roscommon Historical and Archaeological Society will take place on Tues 10th April at 8 pm in the Percy French Hotel, Strokestown. Following at 8.30 pm an illustrated lecture will take place on the theme Co Roscommon Graveyard Headstones by Mary B. Timoney .
Mary has worked extensively on graveyards in Ireland, mainly in the North West. She received her M.A. on the work of the Diamond Stone Masons in Skreen, Co. Sligo c.1780 to 1850. She has published widely on memorials of Cos. Sligo and Roscommon. In 2005 she published’ Had Me Made’, a study of the graveyard memorials of Co Sligo from 1650 to the Present. In the past six years she has studied the decoration of the grave memorials of Ballintober Old Graveyard extending the study to over one hundred graveyards in Co. Roscommon, the surrounding counties and beyond. This work discusses the decoration on the memorials, details over 70 pre 1860 identified stone workers either by initials or signatures and includes a catalogue of Ballintober Old Graveyard. This book of 22 chapters entitled Ballintober Old Graveyard and the Grave Memorials of Co. Roscommon, with prefaces by Albert Siggins and Nollaig Feeney and a Catalogue of headstones in Ballintober Old Graveyard, has 520 pages and is illustrated with over 1,330 images, all in colour of memorial decoration. The text, some 100,000 words, analyses the varied decoration from a period of over five centuries. Mary B. will speak about the book and its coverage of the county as a whole.The printing of the book has been funded under the Heritage Council, County Heritage Plan funding Scheme and is supported by Roscommon Co. Co. as an action of the Co. Roscommon Heritage Plan. All welcome to this interesting lecture.
