During the annual blessing of graves in Drumcliffe (Ennis Burial Ground) on Sunday, November 7th, a Sculpture was unveiled and blessed to the memory of those who were buried as Paupers. They were buried in a mass unmarked grave dating from the early 19th Century to the 1940’s. The stone sculpture erected to their memory was commissioned by the Ennis Sculpture Trail Initiative and designed and created by Shane Gilmore. It depicts a family – father, mother and four children.

Those buried in the pauper’s grave had no known relatives and were penniless. Most of them died in institutions, mainly in Workhouses. The Workhouse in Ennis was where St. Joseph’s Hospital is today.    The ceremony of commissioning had significance for the Sisters of Mercy. Since their arrival in Ennis in 1854 they have been associated with the work of caring and nursing in the Workhouse that later became the County Home and more recently St. Joseph’s Hospital.

 

South Central Province