Burial ground

The National Monuments Service's description

Mass burial pits associated with the former Kilkenny Union Workhouse (established 1843) excavated (05E0435) in 2006 by Brenda O'Meara following its discovery by Cóilín Ó Drisceoil during archaeological monitoring (05E0435) of groundworks for the construction of the MacDonagh Junction shopping centre (O'Meara 2006, 154-62; 2009, 272; Geber 2011; 2015). The burial ground was sited in the SE of the workhouse precinct, in an area of open space outside the women's yard of the complex. A total of 63 complete or partial (truncated) subrectangular pits were excavated and human skeletal remains, totalling 970 individuals, were found in all but one. The burial ground was in use between 1847-50 and resulted from high mortality within the overcrowded workhouse as a result of typhus, scurvy and other diseases. All burials, bar four, were positioned with the head to the SW and the feet to the NE. Within each burial pit the number of interments varied from nine to 25 individuals, laid out in rows of three or four and buried four to six deep. All the individuals had been interred in coffins and in some cases fragments of coffin wood and nails survived. The pits were backfilled with a mixture of topsoil, silty subsoil and underlying gravel. Inclusions of lime and sulphur (brimstone) were recorded in the soil. Finds associated with the burials included a number of textile pouches containing rosaries, copper finger rings and religious medals. An isolated cremation burial deposit (KK019-026217-) of probable Bronze Age date was also found within the site, truncated by one of the 19th century burial pits.

Compiled by: Cóilín Ó Drisceoil

Date of upload: 30 March 2022

References

O’Meara, B. 2009 Former Union Workhouse, John Street/Dublin Road, Kilkenny: cremation/19th-century workhouse burial-ground, 05E0435. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2006: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 272, no. 1056. Bray. Wordwell.

Geber, J. 2011 Osteoarchaeological and archaeological insights into the deaths and intramural mass burials at the Kilkenny Union Workhouse between 1847-51 during the Great Famine. Old Kilkenny Review 63, 64-75.

O'Meara, B. 2006 A preliminary account of recent excavations adjacent to Kilkenny Union Workhouse. Old Kilkenny Review 58, 154-162.

Geber, J. 2015 Victims of Ireland's Great Famine: The Bioarchaeology of Mass Burials at Kilkenny Union Workhouse. Florida. University Press of Florida.