Nicholas Walsh (Clongeen, co. Wexford)

A limestone ledger, 197cm long and 98cm wide, lying flat in the old graveyard at Clongeen, co. Wexford, now published in Clongeen Old Graveyard (Clongeen Historical Group, 2026), p. 237. The stone is finely carved but badly weathered and only partially legible. The only other known record of Nicholas Walsh comes from the Schools Folklore Collection, recorded by schoolmaster Ben Byrne from John O’Neill, Clongeen (dúchas.ie):

‘Another interesting tombstone is that bearing an inscription in Latin over the grave of Nicholas Walsh. Latin teacher, who taught Latin in the Horetown Convent about two miles from Clongeen.’

The style of the carving and the absence of any record of Walsh in later, nineteenth-century sources, indicate a date perhaps in the late eighteenth-century. There were Carmelites teaching in the area until the 1790s but formal Catholic education was severely restricted until 1793. It is possible Nicholas Walsh was a hedge-school master. (I am grateful to Michael Dempsey of Wexford Library for this information).

Brackets indicate doubtful or illegible text. English follows the Latin.

Nicolao Walsh

Qui hujusce Comitatus juvenes tam

Litteris quam moribus bonis instituens

Vitam consumpsit.

Propter plurimas [virtutes] eximiasque artes

Ingeniumque quo pollebat maxime

Condiscipulorum [...]

Discipulorum [...]

Amicorum [...]

Hoc monumentum posuere

Natus [Clongeen] […] heu

Mortuus [...]

Anno Domini […]

Amen

For Nicholas Walsh, who spent his life instructing the youth of this county in letters and good manners. Because of his many [virtues] and rare skills, as well as his remarkable intellect, his old schoolmates, his students, and his friends, have set up this monument. Born in [Clongeen] … alas … died … in the year of Our Lord … Amen.