Laois community plans artwork for unbaptised baby burial site

A committee of artists and local residents are planning to create an artwork to mark a burial site for unbaptised babies in Abbeyleix. 

The committee is calling on the community to support their efforts to ensure the babies and their parents are never forgotten.   

Cilliní burial sites were traditionally used throughout Ireland for the burial of unbaptised babies and in some cases those who died by suicide. 

“We are proposing that Cilliní sites such as this one here in our own community is never allowed to fade from our minds,” Noel Burke wrote on behalf of the committee in an online appeal for support. 

Just days after being set up, a GoFundMe appeal to help properly mark the Tunduff Cillín in Abbeyleix is more than halfway to reaching its target.  

“Let us remember the burial site of the unbaptised babies here in Abbeyleix. Let’s do something about it as a community - so that what has happened here can never be forgotten again,” Mr Burke wrote.  

“This is the time now to recognise that yes the Catholic Church’s teaching on the subject of how they dealt with the unbaptised babies in our dark past was wrong,” he states. 

"How the parents of the unbaptised had to cope and deal with the loss of their babies, a practice that continued right up until the early part of the 1960s, can you just imagine how these parents felt as they had to bury their babies in the dark of night in a rural location, in a burial plot that was unconsecrated, these places known throughout the country as a Cillíní."

"The emotional suffering that these parents felt just because they were unable to comply with the Church’s teaching at the time for one reason or another was just unimaginable, the parents were further forbidden to talk about the loss of their baby, or their experience to any other member of their family, neighbours or friends at the time. Because of the shame that the parents felt, and their inability to comply with the Church’s teaching at the time surrounding the event, they found it easy to comply with the secrecy rule re the non disclosure of the birth,” stated Mr Burke. 

The artists have designed an  artwork which they plan to erect at the site of Tunduff Cillín later this year. They also plan to install a seat where people can rest and reflect on what occurred at Tunduff. 

“A seat constructed with natural stone material will also be erected on this Tunduff Cillíní site so that visitors can sit reflect and ask themselves why were these innocent babies buried here?, sitting on this seat will also help to create for you an opportunity to reflect on the heartache that was suffered by the parents of these unbaptised babies in our community. We can count our lucky stars that our generation would never allow this to happen today,” Mr Burke said.

“We want to thank once again Frank and Anne Lawlor, from Ballytarsna Abbeyleix for keeping the memory of the Tunduff Cillíní alive throughout the years. They have kept this sacred burial plot clean and tidy for as long as they could remember. Frank has unfortunately passed away since 2016, while Anne has now become a lady of a certain age, and no longer in a position to keep the burial plot maintained, she hopes that other members of the community will carry on the work that herself and her husband started all those years ago. Anne wants the people from Abbeyleix to keep the memory of the forgotten babies burial plot alive, and more importantly pass on the history of this Cillíní site to the generations that will follow us in the future,” Mr Burke explained. 

A GoFundMe page has been set up at https://www.gofundme.com/f/tunduff-cillini-abbeyleix-let-us-remember

The Abbeyleix  committee members are James G Carroll, Jim Ring, Tara Whelan, Aishling Rothwell, Artists, Edel O’Keeffe, artist, Jen Donnery, artist, and Noel Burke.