No access to historic Offaly graveyard for two years

There has been a lack of access to the historic graveyard at Birr Workhouse for over two years.
The Workhouse is under the ownership of a company called Castle Rook, who want to turn the premises into a care home for those suffering with dementia.
Castle Rook bought the building in 2018 and said its first task was to restore the roofs which are in a very bad condition.
In 2019 the company built a new gate at the Syngefield entrance, which blocked access to the workhouse and to the graveyard. The gate has remained locked ever since but no building work has started.
Last week the company told the Midland Tribune that it's still intent on carrying out restoration work and creating a dementia care home.
The lack of access to the graveyard was mentioned by Offaly's Heritage officer Amanda Pedlow during a recent Council meeting. “Sadly there has been no tidying up work at the graveyard,” she said. “Because there is no through route the graveyard has been somewhat forgotten for over two years.”

The workhouse in Birr opened in 1842 and closed in 1921. Historian Stephen Callaghan said the opening date for the cemetery is unclear "and there are no records of internments, but it is likely that thousands of inmates were interred here." Former Birr librarian Violet Doolin had a cross erected on the site of the burial ground which acknowledges its former use.

Another historian, in a book about the Famine, pointed out that according to records kept by those running the Workhouse the weekly death rate in the building in April 1847 reached 67 people per thousand. In February 1848, 46 people per thousand people, per week, were dying in the building. In early May 1849 there were 3,007 inmates in the building. In the weekend ending May 19, 1849 101 inmates per thousand died. In other words, 303 people died in one week in the workhouse in May 1849. The internments of these suffering people were not recorded. It's likely they were buried in mass graves. It's highly likely they were buried beside the workhouse. 

This terrible suffering, this terrible period in Birr's history, still strikes a deeply emotional chord for many people in the area. 

Last August a beautiful art project called “The Meadow” was performed at the graveyard site. "The Meadow" was a site-specific sound installation created as an Offaly Drama Project for the Workhouse.

Through a musical setting of historical information and records The Meadow sought to "give voice to the thousands of lives lost in the workhouse during the Great Famine of 1845-1852."

It was conceived by Fiona Breen in collaboration with composer Tom Lane and historian Margaret Hogan.

The event included music, readings and stories.