File:Drumragh Graveyard - geograph.org.uk - 95904.jpg

Summary

Drumragh Graveyard. The tranquil setting of a very ancient graveyard. This old cemetery and ruined church is now the only monument of any great antiquity that links the local parish to pre-reformation times. It is said that the church was demolished by Cromwellian troops who fired their cannon from the present-day Cannonhill area of Omagh. Indeed, local farmers are said to have dug up cannon balls while ploughing nearby fields. (This I find hard to believe as Cannon Hill is several miles away)

It is most likely that the present walls of the ruins mark the site of are the old walls of the ancient Catholic Church which was partly rebuilt in the Plantation period for Protestant worship. Although the native Irish, in the most part, ceased to bury their dead here after the Plantation, Catholics were allowed the right of burial but only under certain conditions. Thus, the priest was not allowed to wear a surplice and crosses were not permitted to be erected on the grave.

In 1902 the Board of Guardians forbade the use of this cemetery but later a section was added for the present congregation. Alice Milligan, who was a prominent Gaelic League during the League's heyday in the early 1900s was buried here in 1953.

Licensing

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