The Famine Graveyard and the Workhouse in Callan, Co Kilkenny, Eire (Only the first 9 minutes)
Whilst visiting my mum in Callan, Co Kilkenny I decided to visit the old workhouse and also the Famine Graveyard, known as 'The Cherry Field'. It was a shocking experience. i thought that I knew about The Great Hunger but was not prepared for this.
Furthermore, the scenario was replicated around the country, whilst the British Government stood by, but making sure food was being exported to England. James Connolly's 'Labour in Irish History' is an indictment of the Robert Peel, Trevelyan government. In Callan alone 3317 people died of starvation in the workhouse between 1845 and 1851.
Countless more died in the workhouse over the period 1841-1922 and were literally carted to the mass grave which I was standing on.
It's like some scene from hell. Imagine the scene, dead bodies being regularly carted to a graveyard (that took me at least 30 minutes to reach on foot and on mostly good road) to be put in a paupers' mass grave. No names, no recognition of lives lived. Those two fields are their memorial.
Sponsered Walk Callan, Co Kilkenny 1970 approx
Cine Film Standard 8mm.
Filmed by Seamus Power
Digitally Converted by Brian Gibbons 2004
Irish House,
Callan,
Co. Kilkenny
Ireland
Graffiti in Callan Workhouse & 32.ie
Graffiti in Callan Workhouse & 32.ie
Irish Deaf Archives CALLAN WORKHOUSE INQUEST
Famine Graveyard Callan, Co Kilkenny, Eire
I visited my mum who lives in a care home in Callan, Co Kilkenny earlier in May.
Whilst there I decided to have a look at the workhouse which was built in 1841. I discovered that over 3000 thousand so-called 'inmates' died of starvation in there during the years of 'The Great Hunger', 1845-1851.
Countless more (literally) died in the workhouse between 1841 and 1922. There's a plaque at the Famine Graveyard, known as The Cherry Field which testifies to this.
Imagine the scene, as bodies were literally carted from the workhouse to the Graveyard on what must have been an almost daily basis (it took me 30 minutes to walk there from the workhouse on a tarmaced road most of the way). A scene from hell.
There are no gravestones, nothing to show names, no recognition of lives lived.
The fields I walked over are a mass grave. This scene was replicated all over the country. It is shocking, utterly shocking. I thought that I understood about this period in the history of Ireland, but was not prepared for this.
Meanwhile, food was being exported to Britain. Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, a man who John Ruskin described as having ' a face like the fittings on a coffin' and Trevelyan presided over the deaths of more than 1 million people in Ireland between 1845 and 1851. More than a million people found themselves on the 'coffin ships' to America.
James Connolly's 'Labour in Irish History' is a powerful and eloquent indictment of the British Government and the ruling class of the time.
Unfortunately, there are revisionist historians in Ireland and elsewhere who would have us believe that this was unavoidable.
Drone callan co kilkenny
Drone footage
The Callan Workhouse. By Mick Dawson
Dedicated to all the victims who died in the workhouse at Callan during the great famine.
Callan Workhouse 'Mapestry' Time-Lapse Video
This time-lapse film, which was created by photographer Brian Cregan ( with LiD Architecture ( captures the collective process of the creation of the Mapestry over a period of 5 days using frames taken at one-minute intervals. An evolving drawing was projected onto the canvas surface and the layers of mapping and intervention interpreted and added. The process involved the Workhouse Assembly participants as well as local contributors, all of whom have initialed the bottom of the Mapestry.
Title
Callan Workhouse Mapestry: A workshop project devised and led by Deirdre McMenamin and Dougal Sheridan of LiD Architecture ( with textile artist Dee Harte ( and participants of the Workhouse Assembly/ Commonage Summer School 2013.
Medium
Linen Union fabric on timber frame, Rewound wool and reclaimed end-of-spool yarn
Size
2m x 3m x 75mm
A brief written description
A large-scale embroidered drawing of the built fabric, habitation and vegetation of the Callan Workhouse building and original walled enclosure. The embroidered drawing, which was nick-named the Mapestry by its creators, was the medium chosen to represent the investigations and proposals made by the LiD Architecture workshop as part of the Workhouse Assembly 2013 ( The workshop examined in detail the patterns of life and appropriation of the Workhouse Enclosure, including the horticultural activities of the Camphill Community, the semi-wild self-seeded shrubs and trees that have formed habitats for wildlife, the County Council social and sheltered housing built in the 1990s, more recent uses as artists studios, joinery workshops, exhibition hall, and circus/ fairground. From these observations, a number of proposals were developed for subtle interventions and incisions designed to increase potentials for the overlaying and enhancement of the current appropriations, as well as the possibilities for connections and cohesions more widely with the town of Callan itself.
With the input of textile artist Dee Harte, methods were developed including reworking the threads of the base fabric into the piece to indicate the 'ghosts' of former buildings; couching-down unraveled yarns to represent the varied vegetation; the use of curved quilting needles and reverse stitching from the rear of the piece that allowed this scale of embroidered image to be worked on my up to ten people at a time. The process of making the Mapestry involved local participation, and the intention is that it will be used as the basis of participatory design workshops and continue to evolve as ideas develop and gain consensus.
For more backround and photographs please see (
The Mapestry and the accompanying video travelled to Dublin to be part of Describing Architecture 2013 (
The participants were:
Louise Baumann
Luke Brabazon
Sinead Burke
Edward Byrne
Shane Byrne
Mary Butler
Vera Callan
Maisie Condon
Peter Cosgrave
Alan Counihan
Brian Cregan
Gary Dalton
Nicola Finlay
Padraig Flynn
Fiona Gannon
Senan Gardiner
Dee Harte
Etaoin Holahan
James Irvine
Hollie Kearns
Gareth Kennedy
Gabriella Kiss
Alice Lee
Rosie Lynch
Deirdre McMenamin
Clémentine Mechri
Sean Moore
Henna Mosse
Sveta Naumova
Yuliya Nemova
Eoghan O'Brien
Kitty O'Brien
Eimear O'Connell
Bridget O'Gorman
Sean O'Sullivan
Sinead Phelan
Shane Reid
Geraldine Rowantree
Dougal Sheridan
Marcin Woszczyna
Callan Ireland Sacred Prayer Ceremony 2015
I wanted to continue to upload positive content on YouTube this week. I located a prayer ceremony that I did in Callan, Ireland with my daughter back in 2015. I have been inspired to continue to complete prayer ceremonies for all of you, simply send me your prayer requests with a small donation and I will find the most powerful place that I can to pray for you and your family. God Bless You and Enjoy the ceremony, Stasha
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Irish Workhouse - Birr
An explanation of the workhouse system which was an early form of social welfare where poor people would live and work in the workhouse.
Callan The Bird Whisperer
Callan on our Contiki tour in Europe this year (2012) putting a pigeon to sleep lol
C.B.S.1.MPG
Photos of Coláiste Éamann Rís / CBS Callan, Co.Kilkenny.
Irish Workhouse Centre - Portumna
A short film about the Irish Workhouse made with the help of the Galway Film Centre. Our web address is irishworkhousecentre.ie. Find us on Facebook at 'Irish Workhouse Centre - Portumna'
The Callan Lassies/The Flowing Bowl
Provided to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises
The Callan Lassies/The Flowing Bowl · Cherish The Ladies
Cherish The Ladies
℗ 2009 IML Irish Music Licensing Ltd
Released on: 2009-03-05
Auto-generated by YouTube.
Kilbride Cemetery, Callan, Co Kilkenny, Eire
Memorial to Irish Republican Army (IRA) members who died between 1916 and 1921
The final years of the Irish workhouse and its dissolution - Mary Daly.
A video recording of a presentation by Professor Mary E. Daly (UCD). Her paper - The final years of the workhouse and its dissolution - was given as part of a Birr Historical Society conference on Birr Workhouse, which took place in September 2013. Professor Mary E. Daly is an expert on the social and economic history of nineteenth and twentieth century Ireland. She is the author of many books including The Slow Failure. Population Decline and Independent Ireland (Wisconsin University Press), Dublin, the Deposed Capital: A Social and Economic History, 1860-1914 (Cork University Press), Industrial development and Irish national identity, 1922-39 (Syracuse University Press; Gill & Macmillan) and The Famine in Ireland (Historical Association of Ireland).
Professor Daly was also one of the principal investigators on the National Famine Commemoration Project along with Cormac Ó Gráda (UCD), David Dickson (TCD) and David Fitzpatrick (TCD). The project researchers (Andrés Eiríksson, Catherine Cox and Desmond McCabe) compiled databases from the workhouse registers and other documents belonging to the governing bodies of several poor law unions (including Parsonstown (Birr)). This data has been made available through the Irish Famine Research Project (IVRLA) and is now available on the UCD Digital Library website.
About Birr Workhouse:
Birr Workhouse opened as Parsonstown Union Workhouse in April 1842. It was designed to a standard plan by George Wilkinson for 800 inmates and was amongst the first 130 workhouses set up under the Irish Poor Law Act. Birr Workhouse is believed to be the least altered of all pre-famine workhouses still standing in Ireland. Closed in 1921, a succession of firms using it for light industries kept the building well maintained but essentially unchanged until about ten years ago. The surviving fabric of the workhouse has since deteriorated and now requires immediate attention.
Camphill Callan & Ballytobin - Exeter Assembly
Bridge Street Will Be(3)- Abhainn Ri Festival,Callan,Kilkenny - July 2015.
‘For me hurling was about Birr’ | Birr's 1990s and 2000s success
In the first of a new #OTBProductions series, we revisit the story of Birr GAA’s historic success in the 1990s and 2000s as told by those who scored the points and lifted the trophies.
Reassembling at the club, former All-Ireland Club Championship winning captains, Joe Errity and Johnny Pilkington, and Birr’s greatest ever player Brian Whelehan recounted their memories of winning 12 county titles, seven Leinsters and four AIB GAA All-Ireland Club Championships in a 17-year period.
There's been a change to the AIB GAA Club Championship fixture schedule this year! Provincial Finals will take place from the 24th of November until the 8th December with the All Ireland semi-finals on the 4th and 5th of January and the finals on the 19th of January.
Tickets available from gaa.tickets.ie and usual outlets including local clubs and Supervalu and Centra stores.
When It’s Club It Lives Forever #clublivesforever #GAABelong
Callan WW1 Memorial 1
Memorial video to the men women Callan co. Kilkenny who fought in WW1