What is recorded here

Eleven unmarked graves lie shallow beneath the soil at Anneville or Clonard Old, possibly holding victims of the Famine. They rest east-west just inches below the surface, waiting for identification rather than excavation. A hidden stone structure looms five metres north, perhaps the lost priory of SS Peter and John or St Mary’s convent. The dead and the building remain entangled in mystery, refusing easy resolution.

Eleven burials were uncovered in excavation (E000154) during 1976 by P. D. Sweetman but not removed (exccavations.ie 1976:055). They were just beneath the surface and oriented E-W, and it was thought that they might date from the Famine period (Sweetman 1978, 15). However, a remote sensing survey (Gibson 2011, 77) identified a palaeo-channel running WNW-ESE between this location and the W boundary of the graveyard (ME047-007001-) c. 160m to the E, as well as four areas of high electrical resistivity, suggesting the presence of stone structures. One stone structure (dims c. 15m E-W; c. 7m N-S) is located c. 5m N of these burials, and could prove to be the site of the Augustinian priory of SS Peter and John (ME047-022----) or that of St Mary’s convent (ME047-021----), which are otherwise unlocated. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 21 May 2015

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