What is recorded here

Monument Bush, County Laois: a hawthorn marked an open-air penal mass station near Capard, remembered and venerated until storm took it. People may have knelt there in danger, praying beneath leaves rather than walls. The road and chapel came later; the bush belonged to an older, riskier devotion.

The site of an open air penal mass station marked by a hawthorn bush was recorded in 1959 when it was recorded that 'One such place, [was] well remembered and venerated, is the Monument Bush or De Profundis Bush [located] on the left hand side of the road about 1/4 mile below the present Chapel as you go towards Capard. The road in question was not then in existence. The hawthorn bush that marked the spot was blown down in the last storm' (Crossdaile 1959, 3). The precise location of this holy bush within the townland of Capard has not been identified. Compiled by Caimin O'Brien Date of Revision/Upload : 01 March 2010

This site is associated with clandestine Catholic worship during periods of religious persecution, particularly linked to the saying of "penal masses" when Catholic practices were outlawed. The hawthorn bush, known as the Monument Bush or De Profundis Bush, was venerated as a sacred marker of these secret rituals.

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.