In a sleepy village nestled deep in County Carlow, Ireland, rests a small churchyard filled with ancient headstones. Who knew that one woman’s daily walk through this leafy graveyard would unravel stories of landlords, Cromwellian soldiers, bankers, Quakers, and twins whose parents have never been found? This book follows the author’s journey of transcribing gravestones as a hobby, detailing the village church and the secrets buried within its graves. It illustrates how information on headstones allows a glimpse at long-forgotten social conditions, politics, religion and grave robbing. It highlights the social lives of headstones and touches on ways the famine, typhoid and child mortality affected parts of Carlow, and a selection of sketches show the reader the beauty of Fenagh and its people.

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The thousand years explored in this book witnessed developments in the history of Ireland that resonate to this day. Interspersing narrative with detailed analysis of key themes, the first volume in The Cambridge History of Ireland presents the latest thinking on key aspects of the medieval Irish experience. The contributors are leading experts in their fields, and present their original interpretations in a fresh and accessible manner. New perspectives are offered on the politics, artistic culture, religious beliefs and practices, social organisation and economic activity that prevailed on the island in these centuries. At each turn the question is asked: to what extent were these developments unique to Ireland? The openness of Ireland to outside influences, and its capacity to influence the world beyond its shores, are recurring themes. Underpinning the book is a comparative, outward-looking approach that sees Ireland as an integral but exceptional component of medieval Christian Europe.