The Dedication on the top on Reads:
In Memory
of
Bernard Kerrigan
DIED AS A YOUNG BOY
15-8-1935
And on the second one
IN MEMORY
OF
BERBARD KERRIGAN
DIED 15-8-1935
AGED 4 YEARS
Bernard cannot be in both graves - and trying to elicit information from gibbo's gang is a waste of time as their figures change - and keep changing.
of
Bernard Kerrigan
DIED AS A YOUNG BOY
15-8-1935
And on the second one
IN MEMORY
OF
BERBARD KERRIGAN
DIED 15-8-1935
AGED 4 YEARS
Bernard cannot be in both graves - and trying to elicit information from gibbo's gang is a waste of time as their figures change - and keep changing.
Bernard is in one grave - we can presume. So who is in the other grave?
ReplyDeleteSunday November 3rd 2002 Sunday Independent [SUMMARY]
ReplyDeleteSURVIVORS of the Letterfrack Industrial School in Connemara uncovered the unmarked grave of a four-year-old boy who died while in the custody of the Christian Brothers and was buried in woods near the school.
The discovery came about when a 74-year-old man turned up for a ceremony to mark the graves of the estimated 99 boys who died at the school between the 1870s until it closed in the Seventies. The man brought organisers to a site in the woods near the school where they found the grave of Bernard Kerrigan, who died in 1935.
The elderly man, who wishes to remain anonymous, told the organisers he had played with the boy in the schoolyard and wanted to visit his grave before he died.
This man who played with him in the schoolyard confirmed that he died and we found his grave. The grave is less than 10 yards from the school building. John Prior said they had heard that a boy had been buried in the woods beside the school but had no idea where it was. It was totally unmarked. "This man came here this morning and brought us to the grave. He said he had been playing with Bernard Kerrigan the day before and the next day was at his burial."
Boys remember trying to escape from the school and being brought back by local people and Gardaí.
The organisers of the event placed 77 marble hearts in the graveyard beside the school. While organising the event, the group known as the Joseph Pike Research Group, discovered from Christian Brothers' records that at least 99 boys died in Letterfrack.
The Christian Brothers said on Friday that incomplete records had been kept at Letterfrack and that they had kept full records in their Dublin Provincialate. They wished that all records about deaths at the school be made available to families and ex-inmates.
The Christian Brothers gave 97 names but the actual total may be actually 99. In some cases there were no death certificates. They are not registered in the Register of Deaths in Galway. On death certificates the boys have also been robbed of their parentage. They are down as 'son of a tinker', 'son of a labourer', 'son of a butcher'.
Bernard cannot be in both graves??? With the Christian Brothers, anything is possible!!!
ReplyDeleteThis is yet another tragic, horrible case - another act of callous indifference to human life. May Bernard Kerrigan rest in peace... God only knows what happened to him..
ReplyDelete