Church (Site of) Graveyard St. Longorys — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

Graveyard St. Longorys marks the ruined church and burial ground of St Lony in County Laois, where a subtriangular field of uninscribed stones still receives the dead. A hawthorn bush beside the holy well wears rags from prayers, while an old patron festival on 24 June once drew crowds and tents across the fields. The surviving west gable and low foundation wall suggest a small oratory that grew into a public church, keeping the saint’s name alive through burial, water and repeated ceremony.

Marked 'Church (in Ruins)' on 1841 edition of the OS 6-inch map. Possibly the site of an earlier foundation associated with St Lony (Comerford 1886, vol. 3, 197). Only W gable, partially reconstructed, survives; a moder low wall was built on the line of the church foundations. Uninscribed grave markers visible in subtriangular graveyard (LA036-002002-). Holy Well (LA036-002003-) and hawthorn bush (LA036-002004-) festooned with rags lie to the NW. Described by Comerford as 'An ancient grave-yard (LA036-002002-), still extensively used, occupies the probable site of St. Lony's cell and oratory, the latter, no doubt, in subsequent times by a public church. The trunk of a venerable tree remains from an aperture in which, six feet from the ground, people still living state that they recollect to have seen water flow in a copious stream. Every available portion of the withered trunk is decorated with ex voto rags. The Saint's Well is immediately outside the burial ground. A Patron used to be held here on the 24th of June; very old natives tell of crowds of people flocking to it, and of fields and tents set up for their accomodation' (Comerford 1886, vol. 3, 197). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Laois' (Dublin Stationery Office, 1995) compiled by P. David Sweetman, Olive Alcock and Bernie Moran. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 17 December 2007

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