Railstown, Rosegreen – by Adam Browne Souza
Primary Children's Competition
I live in a place called Railstown in the parish of Rosegreen. We moved here a year ago. Here we can see the Slievenamon Mountains to the east, the Comeragh Mountains to the south, and the Knockmealdowns beside this. The Galtees lie to the west.
There are a lot of big fields in tillage and in one of these fields there is an old graveyard and the ruins of Railstown church dating back to around 1100 AD. There are a lot of people buried here and the oldest date that I could find is 1742. There was a town called Railstown in a field next to ours and history says that it was burned down by Oliver Cromwell’s army in the early 1660’s. If you walk around the field you can still make out the outline of the houses and streets.
Up until the 1950’s over fifty people lived on our road and they would have walked into school or Mass in Rosegreen. Now there are only ten people living on our road but the ruins of two cottages still exist. I like exploring these cottages with my family and friends. There are also two fairy forts on our road and one of them is on our land.
In 1991 one of the local landowners cleaned up the old church and graveyard and now there is a Mass held here every year on the last Sunday of July. It is a lovely Mass with many locals coming and there is singing also. Only last year a man was buried in the graveyard. It really is a beautiful place here.
Adam Browne Souza, 2nd Class, Dualla N.S.
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