Cameras set to roll on Abbeyleix famine film

CAMERAS are set to roll on a new film telling the tragic story of the Great Famine in Abbeyleix and its devastating impact for generations.

Renowned filmmaker Oliver Fallon visited the heritage town last week, as preparations began for a documentary recounting the famine experience in Abbeyleix from the 1840s onwards.

Commissioned by Laois Heritage Office, the film will feature landmarks that include the Famine Memorial Stone in the grounds of Abbeyleix Community Nursing Unit, site of the former workhouse; the Gate to Heaven overflow famine burial ground on the Carlow road and the famine ‘lazy beds’ or potato drills, where so many laboured in desperation.

After visiting local sites, Oliver and Laois heritage officer Thomas Carolan attended a packed meeting of the Abbeyleix & District Historical Society, held in Ballyroan community hall on Wednesday night, 25 March.

The documentary 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.

A petition launched in early March has been signed by 825 people locally and internationally, with 369 signing online and hundreds more physical signatures collected at the town’s two primary schools, SuperValu and Cleland’s. Support has come from as far afield as Australia and New Zealand as well as the US, Canada and the UK.

The completed petition will be presented to Minister Patrick O’Donovan, urging him to designate Abbeyleix as the national venue for the 2027 commemoration.

At their March meeting today, Laois Co Council members are expected to endorse a proposal from Cllr Marie Tuohy, asking that the council request Minister for Tourism, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media, Patrick O’Donovan, to consider nominating Abbeyleix as the designated venue to host the commemoration.

The Abbeyleix campaign was already strongly backed by Laois Co Council last November, when there was unanimous support for Cllr Tuohy's proposal that an official council letter be sent to Minister O’Donovan, seeking the town's selection for the 2027 national famine commemoration.

The online petition on the ‘change.org’ site, titled ‘Stand With Abbeyleix: A Community Prepared to Remember’, was launched by local historian Noel Burke, on behalf of the new Abbeyleix & District Historical Society.

The group contends that the heritage town is an ideal location for the event, due to its many connections with the devastating Great Famine of the 1840s and 1850s.

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.

Another famine burial ground is located on the town’s Carlow Road, where it was rediscovered by Martin Fennelly in the 1980s and poignantly named Gate to Heaven.

The Abbeyleix & District Heritage Society plans to 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 Abbeyleix Men's Shed and artist Paddy Carroll, with the help of a €1,300 grant from Creative Ireland Laois.

Cllr Tuohy has also donated €3,000 of her council discretionary fund towards construction of the replica famine workhouse cart.

If Abbeyleix is selected, the group anticipates that Minister O’Donovan will visit the memorial in the hospital grounds and the Gate to Heaven, as well as Mountmellick workhouse and the Donaghmore Famine Museum.

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