Matty and I went to Ardboe last Sunday. There's only one thing to see there and that is the old graveyard. Matty spent a happy half hour searching for the grave of an old boyfriend with me following her about saying "Are you sure he's dead?" She grimly and firmly replied, "Oh yes."
Ardboe's graves are very well maintained. In fact it was like visiting a sort of cemetery showroom for we were able to examine a wide range of grave accessories. Matty favoured a sort of green plastic-grass rug that is put over the grave. It would be very easy to maintain but I thought it was horrid. I liked a sort of black shiny stone like polished coal. Maybe it was polished coal. Matty said that East Tyrone did have a coal industry in the olden days.
She told me this story from her youth about getting a boat from Cranfield to Ardboe to go to a dance. She said that all the boys were drunk except the one in charge of the boat. I was a bit surprised about that because I thought she wouldn't have mixed with the type of people who'd drink. But apparently the fellow she was looking for in the cemetery had been a drinker and she thinks he may have died of it.
1 comment:
Loved your day out at Ardboe Graveyard.
I am carrying out research on The Cookstown district and I am including The Ardboe Cross and Graveyard in a journal and wish to include your comments in the journal.
Please let me know if you can you agree to this . If you do could you please send me a photo of yourself to
mcdowellelaine@hotmail.com
Look forward to hearing from you.
Elaine
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