Local graves now appearing online

Locals may be interested to know that a number of their deceased friends and relatives’ graves are now appearing online.

In a move that will be welcomed by some and seen as an invasion of privacy by others, Northern Irish company Ever After have recorded the plot information of a number of local graveyards on their site www.discovereverafter.com

While to date Bridge-A-Crinn cemetery in Faughart and St Fursey’s Cemetery in Haggardstown are the only two in this area available on the site, along with St Peter’s in Drogheda, it is understood that there are plans in place to plot more local graveyards.

As well as giving an interactive map of the cemetery, Ever After takes a picture of each grave and records a number of details about the individual(s) buried there, including: their name, date of death, townland, age and any additional information such as who they are related to.

The site then has a link allowing people to place flowers on the grave while donations can also be made to the parish or church.

Ever After – who are based in Portglenone in Antrim – have received EU and government funding under the Rural Development Programme but a number of locals are concerned about their deceased loved ones’ breach of privacy.

Leona and Sean McAlister set up Plotbox, a cemetery and crematorium programme that allows content to be generated for their genealogy website discovereverafter.com

In February this year they won Invest NI’s Propel Company of the Year award. While the bulk of the cemeteries on the site are based in Northern Ireland, they are increasingly adding southern sites to their website.

Cuchulainn riders take part in charity cycle

Members of the Cuchulainn team who took part in the Lap of Louth on Saturday

On Saturday last Dundalk’s Cuchulainn Cycling Club, under the guidance of Barry Rogers, Francis Dollard and their committee, organised a cycle in aid of the cancer supporting charity On Your Bike.

The cycle was christened the Lap of Louth and took in all the highlights of the “wee” county. Over 100 local cyclists gathered at 8:30am on Saturday morning and started their journey by heading North taking in Carlingford, Omeath and the infamous Davy’s Climb up to the Long Woman’s Grave. The riders then headed out through Faughart and onto Bridge-a-Crinn, where club members Ray Fedigan and Karl Dolan hosted all 100 riders in their bike shop, The Bike Station.

After refuelling on coffee and freshly made scones the riders thanked their gracious hosts and headed for Hackballscross. The 170km route finished up through Ardee, Collon, Drogheda and finally the scenic route home along the coast.

Fresh from her world championship medal winning ride in the USA, Eve McCrystal was back in the Irish colours, racing as part of the Irish team in the 5 day international race, Rás na mBan. Eve went into the race as one of the favourites, despite strong international teams from America and Europe. However bad luck was to befall Eve when she endured a nightmare day on stage three. A puncture, crash and another mechanical fault saw her lose time. A strong ride in the individual time trial and the remaining stages did see her make up some time but not enough to feature amongst the winners.

With the racing all done for the year the next event on the calendar for the club is definitely a leisure event, when on Saturday September 27th the riders will be riding to the outskirts of Belfast for their annual overnight trip. Details can be found on www.dundalkcycling.com

Meanwhile, the AGM for the club’s leisure section will take place tomorrow night (Tuesday) at 8pm in the Jockey’s on Anne Street.