Carved in Stone: Preserving a Community’s Heritage

National Heritage Week 2026

Supported by the Royal Irish Academy, Carved in Stone: Preserving a Community's Heritage is a National Heritage Week programme exploring how gravestones, memorial inscriptions and historic burial landscapes preserve the history, identity and collective memory of communities across generations.

Bringing together local history, archaeology, genealogy and cultural heritage, the programme reveals how communities have preserved their stories in stone—from local burial grounds in North Cork to the wider Irish diaspora in Canada.

The evening features two connected Heritage Week events, beginning with an illustrated presentation at Saint George's, Mitchelstown, followed by a guided exploration of Brigown Cemetery. Participants are welcome to attend either event individually or enjoy the full programme.

Event 1: Irish Names in Canadian Stone: A Transatlantic Heritage

The opening event in Carved in Stone: Preserving a Community's Heritage, this illustrated presentation explores how Irish emigrants left enduring traces of their identity across the Atlantic.

In 1825, more than 750 people from the Cork, Limerick and Tipperary borderlands emigrated together to Canada as part of the Robinson Emigration. Many of these families settled alongside one another in Douro Township, where they were later joined by hundreds of relatives from home. Few communities in North America were so strongly connected to the slopes and valleys of the Galtees and Knockmealdowns.

Their gravestones preserve the names of home parishes, family connections and memories carried across the Atlantic. Through historical research and gravestone archaeology in both Douro and North Cork, supported by a Royal Irish Academy research grant, families such as the Condons of Brigown and the Mohers of Kilworth have been traced from the 1570s to the present day, revealing stories of migration, hardship, resilience and success.

Canadian historian Patrick Leahy and Irish archaeologist John Tierney combine video, Canadian gravestone displays, storytelling and historical research to examine legacies preserved in paper, stone, wood and memory.

Following the presentation, attendees are invited to enjoy refreshments accompanied by music from the Kilworth Guitar & Music Group before continuing to the evening's companion event at Brigown Cemetery.

Date: Thursday, 20 August 2026

Time: 6.15pm – 7.30pm

Venue: Saint George's, Mitchelstown

Admission: Free - Advance booking is required!

Book Here

Music & Refreshments

7.30pm

Following the presentation, attendees are invited to enjoy refreshments and music from the Kilworth Guitar & Music Group before continuing to the guided walk at Brigown Cemetery.

Event 2: Gone Underground: A Heritage Preserved

Continuing the evening's programme, Gone Underground: A Heritage Preserved is a guided exploration of Brigown Cemetery, examining how burial landscapes preserve the social structure, cultural memory and identity of communities long after they have disappeared from everyday life.

Historic cemeteries can preserve the blueprint of local society in remarkable detail. Through an examination of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century gravestones of Brigown Cemetery, participants will explore how burial patterns reflected the Gaelic and Norman social structures that existed in the locality during the Tudor conquest.

By reading the landscape through its monuments and memorials, this guided walk reveals how burial practices preserved elements of a community's cultural heritage for centuries, offering a fascinating insight into the lives, relationships and identities of those who came before us.

Building on the themes explored during Irish Names in Canadian Stone: A Transatlantic Heritage, the walk demonstrates how gravestones and burial traditions continue to serve as enduring records of community history both at home and across the wider Irish diaspora.

Event Details

Date: Thursday, 20 August 2026

Time: 7.45pm – 8.30pm

Venue: Brigown Cemetery, Mitchelstown

Admission: Free - Advance booking is required!

Book Here

For further information about the events, please contact Nichola Grufferty at [email protected]. 

Research was funded by the Royal Irish Academy.