Tonduff Cillíní Abbeyleix - Let us remember

Let us remember the burial site of the unbaptised babies here in Abbeyleix. Let’s do something about it as a community - so that what has happened here can never be forgotten again.

We are proposing that Cilliní sites such as this one here in our own community is never allowed to fade from our minds.

This is the time now to recognise that yes the Catholic Church’s teaching on the subject of how they dealt with the unbaptised babies in our dark past was wrong, it was described as not being Christianity by our own very popular Parish Priest Fr. Paddy Byrne. How the parents of the unbaptised had to cope and deal with the loss of their babies, a practice that continued right up until the early part of the 1960s, can you just imagine how these parents felt as they had to bury their babies in the dark of night in a rural location, in a burial plot that was unconsecrated, these places known throughout the Country as a Cillíní. The emotional suffering that these parents felt just because they were unable to comply with the Church’s teaching at the time for one reason or another was just unimaginable, the parents were further forbidden to talk about the loss of their baby, or their experience to any other member of their family, neighbours or friends at the time. Because of the shame that the parents felt, and their inability to comply with the Church’s teaching at the time surrounding the event, they found it easy to comply with the secrecy rule re the non disclosure of the birth.

Appealing to our Community

This bank account has been set up in the BOI in Abbeyleix by our committee, made up of James G Carroll, Jim Ring, Tara Whelan, Aishling Rothwell, Artists, Edel O’ Keeffe, artist, Jen Donnery, artist, and myself Noel Burke.

The artists on our committee, named above have designed a beautiful piece of art work which has been accepted by the Heritage Officer from Laois County Council and collectively is seen by the committee as appropriate and a fitting tribute that will hopefully later this year be erected on the site, this will allow people to recall and remember just how these innocent babies that lie here were treated in the past. A seat constructed with natural stone material will also be erected on this Tunduff Cillíní site so that visitors can sit reflect and ask themselves why were these innocent babies buried here?, sitting on this seat will also help to create for you an opportunity to reflect on the heartache that was suffered by the parents of these unbaptised babies in our community. We can count our lucky stars that our generation would never allow this to happen today.

When finance is in place and the work completed on the design, it will then be erected on the Tunduff Cilliní site hopefully in the early part of this year. An inscribed natural stone material designed as a reflection seat will also be erected on this site for the benefit of the public so that they can sit, and remember the suffering of all the parents from our community that had the misfortune to come here in the past and bury their babies at this spot in the dark of night.

Fr Paddy Byrne, Abbeyleix Parish Priest, celebrated a well attended Mass on Tuesday evening September 12th 2023, at this Tunduff site, we decided as a community to explore the possibility of erecting a memorial or a piece of modern art at this site with the necessary planning permission being sought, thankfully we are now ready to appeal to the local community for contributions however small just so that we can deliver on our promise to erect this beautifully designed piece, compliments of Edel O’ Keffee, and Jen Donnery, when you view the design specially created for this site, we would appreciate your feed back. I would like to stress that none of the committee or indeed the two lady artists on board have decided that they will not charge a fee for their time, this work is being done completely voluntary and we very much appreciate their help. People that attended the first Mass that was celebrated at Tunduff, contributed some of their hard earned cash on the night so that it could be used for the purchase of the necessary material and whatever professional help that may be required to complete this project. The money donated at this Mass was lodged into the Tunduff Cilliní account in the BOI in Abbeyleix on the 16th of January last the same day this account was opened, thanks to everyone who contributed at this Mass.

Finally following our application to the Council our proposal is now just waiting for it’s final approval from the LCC area engineer with responsibility for the Abbeyleix division, as we already have the approval of the Heritage officer, we now hope as a committee that it is seen as a suitable piece of modern art design that will appeal to everyone that will view this beautiful piece of art work in time. When planning permission is hopefully granted this will be erected on the Tunduff site complete with the sad story behind the reason why we are erecting this memorial in the first place.

We will post the complete set of images and design on our FB page as soon as we receive full planning permission.

We want to thank once again Frank and Anne Lawlor, from Ballytarsna Abbeyleix for keeping the memory of the Tunduff Cillíní alive throughout the years. They have kept this sacred burial plot clean and tidy for as long as they could remember. Frank has unfortunately passed away since 2016, while Anne has now become a lady of a certain age, and no longer in a position to keep the burial plot maintained, she hopes that other members of the community will carry on the work that herself and her husband started all those years ago. Anne wants the people from Abbeyleix to keep the memory of the forgotten babies burial plot alive, and more importantly pass on the history of this Cillíní site to the generations that will follow us in the future.

We really appreciate any donation towards this memorial. We will keep you updated with our progress.

***UPDATE***

Plans to honour the historic burial site of unbaptised babies in Abbeyleix are a step closer to fruition this week following the green light from Laois County Council.

Plans to recognise the burial plot have been agreed by area engineer Wesley Wilkinson and Laois Heritage Officer Thomas Carolan subject to some conditions.

Because of health and safety concerns in this area it is now agreed that the reflection seat and QR code will now be relocated to a community reflection area at the north end of the town close to the Abbeyleix Heritage House Museum.

There is a group of bereaved mothers that live in our community who attend a prayer service every October to remember the sad loss of their own babies, it will now be their intention to also use this community area when completed early this year to reflect on all the babies that were buried at the Abbeyleix Tonduff Cillín, as well as the loss of their own babies.

Our new agreed plan is now to erect a piece of natural stone marking the Cillín burial site with the text written in both the English and Irish language. Our Parish Priest Fr. Paddy Byrne has agreed to celebrate a Mass at the Tonduff Cillín site on April 23 at 7pm.

We look forward to seeing you at the site & thank you again for all your donations!