Cameras roll in Abbeyleix this Sunday for new famine film

CAMERAS will roll in Abbeyleix this Sunday, as filming continues on a documentary recounting the area’s tragic history during the Great Famine.

The community will gather 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.

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

Local historian Noel Burke said: “We want to appeal to as many people as possible to attend the event, part of which will be included in the Abbeyleix famine documentary. By attending the Mass, you become part of the legacy, part of the healing, part of the remembrance. Your presence matters.” 

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.

Noel said: “When the camera captures the congregation gathered in solidarity on Sunday, it will echo the community that once stood along the roadside as the girls passed by on their way to Maryborough Railway station and the ship that would take them to Australia.

“It will show that Abbeyleix remembers, not with distance but with heart. Our project will honour the memory of the orphaned Abbeyleix Workhouse girls and all who suffered during the Great Hunger.” 

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.