Restoration of Mayo cemetery with 160 years of hidden history
St. Mary’s Hospital Castlebar Heritage Society has announced a major initiative to acknowledge and commemorate those buried in Aglish Graveyard, many of whom were patients who died in the former Castlebar Lunatic Asylum.
It is estimated that the number of individuals buried there runs into the high hundreds, reflecting similar burial practices in asylum graveyards throughout Ireland during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Aglish Graveyard restoration project is an effort to restoring the broken links in the history for Mayo people and beyond.
This initiative represents a first opportunity for the community in County Mayo, and beyond, to collectively remember those individuals whose lives and deaths remained largely unrecognised for generations.
It also serves as a moment to reflect on the thousands of residents who died in similar circumstances in asylums across the country.
Supported by Mayo County Council and the Health Service Executive, the society’s objective is to honour the past while preserving the future.
Central to the project is the restoration of dignity to those buried at Aglish Graveyard and ensuring their memory is acknowledged and preserved for future generations.
The Aglish Graveyard restoration project seeks not only to improve the physical condition of the graveyard but also to restore an important chapter of Mayo’s social history.
While landscaping and conservation are essential elements of the project, the broader aim is to place the graveyard and those interred there firmly within the community’s commemorative life.
Historical records suggest that when a patient died in the Castlebar Lunatic Asylum, they were transported by cart to Aglish Graveyard in coffins made in the asylum.
In most cases, the coffin may have been accompanied by a nurse and, occasionally, by another patient.
In any discussion of the rights and wrongs of past practices in the Lunatic Asylums consideration would have to be taken on the difficulty of interpreting those practices and events by comparing them to today’s standards.
The language used to describe asylum patients at the time reflected the attitudes of the era and can appear harsh and unsettling today.
Terms such as ‘lunatics’ or ‘dangerous idiots’ were commonly used within the institutional framework of the 19th century but stand in stark contrast to modern understanding and terminology surrounding mental health.
Aglish Graveyard itself dates back to the late 1800s and was consecrated by the Archbishop of Tuam.
To bring balance into the discussions that hopefully will ensue from the ceremony as part of the commemorative process, it is worth noting that historical records indicate that those buried there were afforded traditional religious burial rites.
When examining the history of asylums, it is important to recognise the challenges of interpreting past practices solely through the lens of modern standards.
Many patients buried there were not taken to their communities by their families for a variety of reasons.
Records would indicate most families did not reclaim the remains of relatives for burial in their home communities due to a combination of stigma, fear, poverty, and limited transport options.
Those are the realities that shaped life in Ireland during that period.
The society believes that those buried in Aglish deserve to be remembered with dignity and respect, just like those resting in any other cemeteries in County Mayo.
The hope is that they will be formally included in community commemorations such as Cemetery Sunday and recognised by statutory authorities as part of Mayo’s historic graveyard heritage and placed on an equal footing with their fellow citizens in every other graveyard in Co. Mayo.
Ultimately, the restoration of Aglish Graveyard is about reconnecting the people of Mayo with an often-overlooked part of their history, honouring those who came before us, and ensuring their memory is preserved for generations to come.
- Anthony O’Boyle, St. Mary’s Hospital, Castlebar Heritage Society.