KILBABBIN (A link with the days when the O'Dohertys were chiefs o/ Ardmiodha.r l . In the townland of Cavan Lower (parish of · Donoghmorc~, ba:·ony of Rapho.~ South 0/S. 78.) there is a field belonging to !\Ill'. Hugh Aiexander known ns Kilbac'bin. In it is the site of a graveyard which was bu t a few perches in area, but which Jocally g<:·vc its name to the who'.e fbkl and the whole is now 1~ultivated as one field. About sixty years ag:o a farmer, named John Ga)lcn, who owned a little fa:·m b.~sidc the cemetery, died. It was said that he remembered s.eeing. ·while herding cows in a field adjoining the graveyard. a funeral parry :~u:rive there. Gallen was then a lad or seven or eight years o1cl anci this event. unusual and rr:ade all the mor.~ untoward by tr,') gathering twilight, frightened him 'into driving the cows home. In late1· life he told ihis sto:-y several. times. It appeared to him that there were two or three men of the pa!·ty, and that they had a coffin en a wheel car, a fo~·e runner ot 1he pre;,cnt farm cart in hill,- dist 1 ids. They did not proceed with the digging of a grave :1t once. but sat around and partook of some form of refreshment for lie s:1w thl•in <lrin.killf.( from :t j :·11· whh·h wns hnnclrrl nr<rnml. Tlie horse began to crvp lhl: grass very greedily and appea1·- ed to Gallen to have come a long iiistance. The late :\fonsignor McLaughlin, P.P. of Donaghmore, was interested in this old graveyard and asked me to show him the sit·2. He was very disappointed to find no r~·ace of a boundary between it. and tlic fieid. John Gallen died when he was eighty Years old so that the last burial in KiLbnbbin must ba\'e taken place about one hundred and thirty year.;; ago. The late Father Walter Hegarty was abo ve~·y interested in Kilbabbin and some twenty y0ars ago he recorded the following, based on traditions received from Father James O'Flcherty:- " Cill Babin was the ~pccial bu:·ial grouml of the O'Dohcrtys ar.d when they removed from their origin:Jl headquarters near the Finn to lnis Eoghain they still loved to bring back thei.r dead to Cill Babin. This would show that this chur<'h like Killfaughe:· in Clon.leigh pa!·isl1 was :i . foundation and under the patronage of that noble family. It may possibly throw some light on t h e jurisdiction of Ard Miodhair." P. i\fauuii·f'. Cool:trfawson.
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