Unique Discovery At Tramore

UNIQUE DISCOVERY AT TRAMORE

By Nicholas Whittle.

Article from the Munster Express of Friday, January 5th 1951.

  The story of a group of men who met together to erect a Holy Year Cross on a wind-swept hill near Tramore, the site being selected because of its height. The writer recounts here the strange, moving story which since has emanated from out of the very heart of this hill, which carries on its summit the Holy Year Cross.

  It was on a night in September last that a small group of Tramore residents met for the purpose of making arrangements to erect a Holy Year Cross. After discussion, it was finally decided that Pickardstown Hill, near the Metal Bridge, being the highest point in the neighbourhood, was the most suitable site for its erection. There followed a series of meetings, and then, on the first Sunday in Advent, the massive timber cross, weighing nearly three-quarters of a ton, was borne aloft on the shoulders of the men of the parish from the church along the two-mile route to the brow of Pickardstown Hill.

  The memory of that day will be cherished in many homes in the years that lie ahead of us. The memory of the day when the men vied with one another in their eagerness to be allowed to lift on their shoulders the mighty symbol of Calvary, their eagerness lending them a zest and strength which reflected itself in the great beams of timber being carried on high, as if it had been shorn of its weight. The tense, compressed lips of the carriers, at times, bespoke their great effort, their willing stride betokened full well their pride in carrying shoulder high their precious burden.

AN OLD WOMAN'S OBSERVATION: "YE KNEW WHERE TO PUT IT."

     It was on the evening after the cross had been set in position on the hill that the first trickle of the low-spoken words reached my ears. It was an old woman who first spoke, and it was on the way home, as the cross stood silhouetted against the evening sky, that I listened to her words. "Ye knew where to put it ." she remarked. "Ye put it right at the top of the Mass Path."

Her words caused me to wonder somewhat, because I had attended all meetings of the group who had sponsored the project. The only reason Pickardstown Hill was chosen was because of its height and its proximity to the main Waterford - Tramore Road. But the old woman had said to me, "Ye knew where to put it," and her words had set me thinking.

   Soon I found myself busily engaged joining together the scattered pieces of a splendid fragment of Irish Catholic history. And now that I have assembled the different available portions of it, even loosely together, I think again of the words the old woman spoke. But my thoughts prompt me to say, "There was another beckoning hand which guided that great timber cross to its present site on the summit of Pickardstown Hill."

From the lips of old men and women of the district, I have garnered the traditions handed down to them through the generations. The echoes of the events told to me have lingered around the firesides in the homely kitchens across the span of years, bridging as with a living link, the distant past with the present.

THE MASS PATH TO HILL AND THE HILL WHICH SHELTERED HUNTED PRIESTS:

The path which runs zig-zag up the face of Pickardstown Hill has been known for generations as the Mass Path. It wends its way from the old Tramore Road, with gaps at the main Waterford - Tramore road and railway line, when the tapering path can be clearly seen again, twisting onward up Pickardstown Hill and leading towards the boreen known as Mason's Lane. Beside this lane, to the rear of the Holy Year Cross and within a very short distance of it, is pointed out the site where once a church or chapel stood. To the north and south sides of this site runs a long, narrow boreen, both sections of it being designated as two further approaches to the hillside chapel. One hears tales in the district of hunted priests who found shelter behind this hill: of the murder-of a priest and some of his congregation by English soldiers in Drumcannon Church, and of the subsequent transformation of a sheep pen on Pickardstown Hill into a penal chapel. Wending one's way through the maze of scattered traditions, one looks around in search of some tangible object which could justify them, for there appears no current written record of a church having been there. It was while I was seeking such a justification that an old resident said to me: "Look at the Mass path that's there for centuries, furze bushes grow at both sides of it but none grow on it. How can that be accounted for?"

CANDLESTICKS OF CHAPEL LOCATED:

    And being unable to answer, I became silent and thoughtful. But I was yet to happen on tangible things which gave a foundation to tradition. In the home of Mrs. Ellen Walsh, The Spout, Tramore, I was shown a pair of beautifully wrought altar candlesticks of yet undiscerned metal, reputed to have been used in the chapel at Pickardstown. They were donated by one of the Power family, of Pickardstown, an ancestor of Mrs. Walsh's, and bear at the base the initials ”M.P." At the house of Mr. James Halley, Pickardstown, there was shown to me a crude holy water font taken in for safety several years ago by his late father, which is also associated with the hillside penal chapel. From Mrs. Walsh I learned of a small booklet, treasured and held by former generations of her family, in which specific mention was made of a chapel having been on the hillside at Pickardstown. And thus the Mass path had led me on to come into contact with things which the people who had trodden it in the past had known and cherished.

DISCUSSION WITH CANON POWER:

    A few days ago I sat in his study in John's Hill, Waterford, with Rev. Canon Pat Power, that intellectual giant of the Decies, discussing with him the result of my research enquiries at Pickardstown. The Canon, now approaching his ninetieth year, was busy putting the finishing touches to the proofs of a new edition of his monumental work, “Place Names in the Decies," which is be republished shortly. At the end of our talk, the Canon agreed with me that there is now proof that a chapel did exist at Pickardstown. Being a splendid enthusiast in the cause of historical research, he proposed visiting the district to examine the data for himself.

MET THE GRIM CHALLENGE:

    And so the cross which stands on that windswept hill overlooking the main Tramore road will tell the passer-by of the future, not only of the great Holy Year which has just ended; it will also speak of the glorious past. It will tell the wayfarer, that here on this rugged hill our ancestors met the grim challenge which was hurled against their Faith by those who would destroy it. It will speak, with its outstretched arms, of the men and the women who were prepared to lose all that they might gain what was greater than all.