Memorial unveiled in Dolla
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Dolla Graveyard Committee at the Ecumenical Service to commemorate all babies interred in Dolla Graveyard, left to right: John Kennedy, Dr Tom Collins, Joan McInerney, John Grace, Breda Grace, Anthony Collins, Liam Maher, Tom Carey and Willie Hickey. PHOTOs: ODHRAN DUCIE Odhran DucieImage 2 of 6
The plaque unveiled at the Ecumenical Service to commemorate all babies interred in Dolla Graveyard. Odhran DucieImage 3 of 6
A large crowd gathered for the Ecumenical Service to commemorate all babies interred in Dolla Graveyard. Odhran DucieImage 4 of 6
Dr Tom Collins, Cllr Phyll Bugler, Patricia Feehily, Cllr Pamela Quirke O’Meara and Michael O’Brien at the Ecumenical Service to commemorate all babies interred in Dolla Graveyard. Odhran DucieImage 5 of 6
Back row: Shauna Kennedy, Joan Kennedy, Molly Kennedy Butler, John Kennedy, Mary Kennedy and Maura Slattery. Front row: Grace and Sarah Shanahan pictured at the Ecumenical Service to commemorate all babies interred in Dolla Graveyard. Odhran DucieImage 6 of 6
Bríd Collins and Kate Grace-Kenneally pictured at the Ecumenical Service in Dolla. Odhran DucieA memorial to all infants buried in Dolla Graveyard was unveiled at a ceremony on Sunday last by Patricia Feehily. Patricia is the widely acclaimed and highly regarded journalist, who has contributed to a number of local newspapers including the Nenagh Guardian.
Ms Feehily, a native of Dolla, described how as a child she had played among the gravestones in the graveyard with the other children of the neighbourhood. “And even though my family left the area when I was 14,” she said, “throughout my life Dolla has always been my home.”
The memorial was designed by Ultan McAvinue, of the Limerick School of Art and Design. The inscription reads: “In loving remembrance of all the babies, whether named or nameless, interred in this cemetery.” The ceremony included an ecumenical service led by Rev Keith Barry, Rector, Nenagh, and Fr Brendan Moloney, PP Silvermines.
Speaking on behalf of Dolla Graveyard Committee, which commissioned the memorial, Dr Tom Collins thanked Liam Maher, Breda Grace and all who had been involved in this event. He particularly thanked Patricia Feehily, who, he said, had throughout her life and achievements brought unique levels of distinction and honour to her home place. This memorial, he said, was designed to bring comfort to the bereaved for the very individual and personal trauma for the loss of a child. “But it should also be seen,” he said, “as an act of atonement for the failures of the Irish State, particularly in the early decades of its foundation to live up to the promise of the first Dáil, which asserted as stated in Moira Maguire’s ‘Precarious Childhood post-independence Ireland’, that it would be the ‘first duty of the Government of the Republic to make provision for the physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing of the children to ensure that no child should suffer hunger or cold from lack of food, clothing, or shelter but that all should be provided with the means and facilities requisite for their education and training as citizens of a free and Gaelic Ireland’.”