Cork - Ballysally Church Ruins *********************************************** Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives Cork Index Copyright ************************************************ File contributed by: C. Hunt & M.J. Bradley BALLYSALLY CHURCH RUINS [From Vol. XIV, p. 267 of the Journal of the R S A I.] Mr. Denis A. O'Leary, of Charleville, contributed the following notice of John MacDonnell "Claragh," the Poet, to the above Journal:- '"The Jabobite poet John MacDonnell, know by his cognomen of "Claragh" (the Clare man), is buried within the ruined church of Ballysally, about a quarter of a mile south of the town of Charleville, Co. Cork, where an ordinary limestone slab , 2 feet by 4 feet long, stands at the head of a grave, and bears the following inscription"':- I H S Johanes McDONALD congno- Minatus Claragh, vir vere Catholicus atq. Tribus linguis ornatus, nempe Greca Latina et Hybernica: non Vulgaris ad hunc ceppum, obijt Etatis 63 Anno salutis 1754. Requiescat in Pace _________________ TRANSLATION John McDONALD (recte MacDonnell), surnamed Claragh, a man truly a Catholic, and accomplished in three languages, namely Greek, Latin, and Irish; a poet of no common genius, is buried under this gravestone. He died of the age of 63 in the year of salvation 1754. May he rest in peace. 'John MacDONNELL ranked as a gentleman-farmer, and held land called Clybee, lying to the north of Carleville. Mny of his poems have appeared in different works. - O'Daly's "Poets and Poetry of Munster," "Jacobite Reliques," &c. He was called Claragh from the fact that his family originally came from County Clare.' W FitzG. SOURCE: Journal of the Association for the Preservation of the Memorials of the Dead in Ireland: vol. 6 1904 - FHL # 1279285