Abbeyleix hosts poignant Mass for famine victims

A POIGNANT ceremony in Abbeyleix on Sunday was recorded for a new film on the area’s tragic history during the Great Famine.

The community gathered at 11am in the town’s Church of the Most Holy Rosary for a Mass celebrated by Fr Paddy Byrne PP, to mark National Famine Commemoration Day on 17 May.

The ceremony honouring all famine victims, particularly those who perished in Abbeyleix Workhouse, will be included in a documentary directed by renowned filmmaker Oliver Fallon.

Local historian Noel Burke said: “Fr Paddy spoke with compassion and clarity, reminding us that the Famine is not distant history but a wound carried in our families, our landscape, and our collective memory.

“By gathering, praying and recording this moment, Abbeyleix stands in solidarity with communities across Ireland, ensuring that the names, the stories and the dignity of the victims are never forgotten.” 

The film comes at a time when Abbeyleix is campaigning to host the 2027 Irish Famine Commemoration Day, a major national event held annually on the third Sunday in May.

Filming began on 8 May for the famine documentary, which was commissioned by Laois Heritage Office. The first scenes recorded by cameraman Martin Blake were at the famine ridges or ‘lazy beds’ in Oldtown, one of the most tangible surviving famine-era features in the county, where so many laboured in desperation from the 1840s onwards.

The film will also feature landmarks that include the Famine Memorial Stone in the grounds of Abbeyleix Community Nursing Unit, site of the former workhouse and the Gate to Heaven overflow famine burial ground on the Carlow road, which was rediscovered and preserved by Martin Fennelly in the 1980s.

An estimated 2,000 destitute people were buried at the rear of Abbeyleix Workhouse, now the site of Abbeyleix District Hospital/Community Nursing Unit, where a memorial headstone and limestone seat were erected last May by the Tonduff Cillín Committee.

On Irish Famine Commemoration Day next year, Abbeyleix & District Heritage Society will stage a re-enactment, with people in period dress walking or cycling high nelly bicycles from Market Square to the hospital, the site of the old workhouse, where a prayer service will be held in memory of those who perished from starvation.

The re-enactment will feature an authentic replica of a horse-drawn workhouse cart, which was used to transport people and bodies. The wooden cart will be constructed in conjunction with artist Paddy Carroll and Abbeyleix Men's Shed, led by Johnny Talbot and Michael Moore, with the help of a €1,300 grant from Creative Ireland Laois.

Laois Co Council has unanimously supported a proposal that Abbeyleix host 2027 Irish Famine Commemoration Day. The proposal, which was submitted to culture minister Patrick O’Donovan, was put forward by Cllr Marie Tuohy, who donated €3,000 of her council discretionary fund towards construction of the replica famine workhouse cart.

The cart will travel the same road as 28 young women and girls from Abbeyleix Workhouse, some no more than children, who were sent to Australia in 1848 under the Earl Grey Scheme.

If Abbeyleix is selected to host Irish Famine Commemoration Day next year, the group anticipates that Minister O’Donovan will visit the memorial in the hospital grounds and the Gate to Heaven, as well as the site of Mountmellick workhouse and the Donaghmore Famine Museum.