Under the various Land Acts enacted by both the British and later, Irish Governments, many tenants were enabled to purchase their holdings from the State. This was done over a defined period at reasonable and fixed cost to the purchaser. Thus, the tenanted Farnham Estate and mainly untenanted McCarron lands were divided up and the holdings transferred into local ownership. It was such a portion of the land from the McCarron estate that was used for our local graveyard in Kilnaglare. Previously Cullies Graveyard was where most local families buried their dead.


The first person to be buried in Butlersbridge cemetery was Joseph O'Reilly of Urney, father of Mrs. Mary Kate Bartley. He died on the 20th March 1939. The late Phil McArdle, Plush, related to me the following story. Mary Kate Bartley was invited to visit the Teevan sisters who were home on holiday from America in Kilnaglare (now Andy McConnell’s). Mrs. Bartley declined the invitation as she found it too difficult to pass the graveyard where her father was the only person interred there at that time.