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by Simon McGeady, Inishowen Independent
A MOVILLE tour guide, who has branded the condition
of Cooly Cross graveyard a ‘national embarrassment,’
is launching a campaign to restore the site to its
former glory.
The graveyard, the site of an early Christian
monastery dating back as far as the 6th century, is
so overgrown with weeds and briars as to be
virtually impassable, with only the tallest
headstones visible from the entrance.
Martin Hopkins, from nearby Gulladuff, runs
historical walks part-time during Moville's St
Patrick’s Day and summer festivals.
“The graveyard’s ancient headstones and Skull House
are what the tourists want to see. Back in March I
had a group of foreign tourists up here and the
graveyard was in a really bad condition. Between
March and the time of the summer festival the bushes
had grown so high I couldn’t even bring the tourists
in.
“If you look around Inishowen there are a number of
National Monuments under the protection of Office of
Public Works like Grianan or Donagh Cross. These
attractions bring in tourists from all over the
place. If a tourist visited Cooly, they would never
want to come back. They certainly wouldn’t tell
their friends to come here.” |
I thought it was time
to take the bull by the horns and do something, so I
have called a meeting for Thursday the 15th of
October in the Caiseal Mara Hotel at 8.30pm sharp.
Everyone is welcome. I hope to form a preservation
group with a core of volunteers. The cost of the
project will have to be covered by grant aid. We
need a lot of volunteers to get funding then to help
clean up the graveyard.”
Mr Hopkins acknowledges that a plan for the
restoration and maintenance of the graveyard will be
difficult to come up with, but he is determined to
try.
“It’s not just a simple case of going up to Cooly
with a strimmer. Because this is a site of national
significance we will need to get permission from the
Department of Environment, the Heritage Council,
Donegal County Council, and the owners of the land.
I even had Wildlife Ranger Emmet Johnston here to
advise me if the graveyard had become a wildlife
habitat due to all plant life now present.”
Mr Hopkins would like to see all the vegetation cut
down to the ground revealing the ancient headstones
and other ecclesiastical ruins.
He hopes the physical restoration of the graveyard
will be accompanied by greater level of interest
into just what sort of settlement it was, and the
people who have been buried there over the
centuries.
“This is a site of national significance. Cooley was
the original settlement in Moville, people lived
there long before the current town was built. It was
probably a graveyard for monks as far back as the
6th Century.”
Mr Hopkins pointed to the work done by locals to
restore St Mura’s graveyard in Fahan as an example
of what could be done when the community came
together to act. (Inishowen Independent) |
