What is recorded here

Twenty metres northeast of the Altar Stone in Gortaleen, unbaptised babies slept beneath a whitethorn tree. Peter OHalloran, a travelling sage staying with John O Briens, revealed the hidden graveyard and a crock of gold buried under a flag beneath the roots. The children waited for mercy the living forgot, while the gold remained locked inside the earth.

The precise location of a children's burial ground located 20m NE of a mass rock (KE046-045----) known locally as 'Cloch na h-altóra' (Altar stone) within the townland of Gorteen has not been identified. Folklore collected from Fybagh School recorded the following tradition; 'About twenty years ago a travelling man named Peter OHalloran put up for a night at John O Briens house Gortaleen. This was the first time he was noticed about the place and he was a sage. He told them they mass was celebrated on a rock some where in the neighbourhood in olden times and that there was a whitethorn tree not far from the rock and that there was a crock of gold under a flag beneath the tree. The whitethorn tree is about 20 yard north east of the rock and unbaptised babies were buried around it (The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0432, Page 307a; https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4687708/4685902/4707691?ChapterID=4687708). The placename 'Killeen' is annotated in the S quadrant of the townland of Gorteen on the 1841 ed. OSi 6-inch map indicating the presence of the children's burial ground that was known locally as the 'Killeen'. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 23 May 2022

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