St Patrick's Catholic Church (1944) and its predecessor (1820) were both built in Ballinamore town centre. Neither had graveyards attached so burials continued at Killadough and Oughteragh graveyards.



Oughteragh listed as ref LE025-008 in the Irish national monument archaeological survey is the site of the medieval parish church, after which both the Roman Catholic and Church of Ireland parishes are named. It was occupied by The Church of Ireland during the reformation, but the church then fell into disuse when in 1785 they vacated to their newly built church in Ballinamore. The graveyard at that point reverted back to a Catholic burial ground, and the new annexes thereto now serve as the municipal town cemetery.



Killadough listed as ref LE025-075 in the Irish national monument archaeological survey was the site of the penal-era church after Oughteragh was lost to the Church of Ireland. An 1855 survey stated burials had ceased "these last sixty years", so Catholics had by then reverted back to their ancestral burial ground in Oughteragh. Shortly after that 1855 survey, all trace of Killadough graveyard was obliterated in a sad tale of agricultural folly.



The Desecration of Killadough Graveyard

(Leitrim Guardian 2002)

Percy the landlord over the Killadough part of Ballinamore was keen post-famine to improve the productivity of his land, and imported an English land steward to lead this program. This steward knew nothing of the daub that lies just nine inches below all such Leitrim Drumlin land and ignored all advice tendered by the natives in this regard. This became apparent when he deep-ploughed the whole estate, thus rendering it useless.

The steward then compounded his error by removing the burial layers of Killadough Graveyard to spread as a restorative top layer across the estate land. The gravestones and ruins of the church were lost at the same time as land-fill for a new access road across the site of the graveyard. Centuries of burial tradition were thus obliterated and all that remains now is the hollow where Killadough Graveyard once stood.