What is recorded here

Kilcummin graveyard once held a cursing stone people turned when hatred rose. They broke it to stop the harm, reassembled it, and a priest later carried it toward Ballina. A fragment still lies buried in the grass, waiting for the anger that made the stone famous.

The 1838 OS Letters record that in Kilcummin graveyard (MA008-006007-) there was an inscribed stone that was traditionally used as a cursing stone: ‘There formerly was a stone in this Churchyard on which it is said there was some inscription, and which the people were accustomed to turn or get turned, when they imprecated curses against any one of their enemies.’ (O’Flanagan 1927, 101-2 (195-6)). The stone was deliberately broken to prevent its use, then reassembled, and finally, sometime in the early 1800’s, removed from the graveyard by a local priest, who is said to have brought it to a ‘new Roman Catholic chapel’ in Ballina. According to tradition, a fragment of the stone remained in the graveyard (ibid. 101-2 (195-6). The exact whereabouts of the stone are unknown. Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 15 July 2019

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