An abiding memory of younger days is the summer work evening in the graveyard adjacent to Dualla church. The arrival on one particular evening of a new type of motorized grass cutter known as a strimmer caused something of a commotion as the assembled group marvelled at its potential to make little of the task in hand. Our Lady’s Cemetery, as it has become known in recent years, recorded its first burial with the interring there of Johanna Flynn (nee Heffernan) in 1866. She and five others interred in the late 1800’s would appear to have had the place to themselves right up until the early years of the twentieth century. Over the course of the following ninety years most of the available area would become occupied, and in the 1970’s the graveyard was extended by incorporating part of the school’s playing area. Today, Our Lady’s Cemetery bears little resemblance to the days when an annual visit with a grass strimmer was considered appropriate, and so much the better. As an American tourist said on leaving St Brigid’s Well in Co Clare, having left a note bearing her deceased husband’s name, “You live as long as you are remembered”.

By: Pierse McCan