Sometime coincidences are just a little too spooky.<\/p>\n
I was a little bit lost on the the back roads of County Cork when a tiny cemetery and chapel caught my attention. Later I learned it was Kilshannig Cemetery.<\/p>\n
Despite the rain I pulled off the road as best I could, found a small gate in the heavy stone wall and ventured inside.<\/p>\n
I am not usually one to read the texts and think about the history inscribed on tombstones and lives lived. Instead I prefer to keep it a purely visual experience.<\/p>\n
I spent a little while walking around the chapel and feeling the somber mood of the low light, the wintry drizzle and sullen overcast sky.<\/p>\n
As I was ready to say goodbye and head back to the comfort of a warm and dry vehicle one tombstone caught my eye and drew me in to read the words inscribed.<\/p>\n
‘In loving memory of Jim O’Connor Pendys Cross Dromahane Died 22nd Nov 1995 …’ <\/p>\n
Usually I would have stopped there, but something kept me reading.<\/p>\n
His parents were buried here. His 18 month old sister was buried here. There were family here acknowledged back to William O’Conner who died in 1772.<\/p>\n
Still, nothing too unusual for an obscure out of the way Irish cemetery … And then I saw what was written Last.<\/p>\n
‘Tim (Timmy) O’Connor (Late of Pendys Cross) Died 18th December 1998 Interred in Adelaide Australia’<\/p>\n
Adelaide, where I now live, and the farthest place on the planet from Kilshannig Cemetery, was the very last line.<\/p>\n
It was chance that brought me here, it was chance I noticed this grave and unusual for me to have read the inscription to the end.<\/p>\n
So now as I drive past any cemetery here in Adelaide I think about Timmy O’Conner, and wonder what brought him here.<\/p>\n
Coincidence?<\/p>\n
Photo: Robert Rath, ‘When Worlds Collide’, 1\/30s f\/13 ISO160 17mm<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sometime coincidences are just a little too spooky. I was a little bit lost on the the back roads of County Cork when a tiny cemetery and chapel caught my attention. Later I learned it was Kilshannig Cemetery. Despite the rain I pulled off the road as best I could, found a small gate in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[47,754,1610,1611,1616,1612,1613,1262,702,1609,691,1615,868,1617,1614,29],"class_list":["post-6129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-adelaide","tag-australia","tag-cemetery","tag-coincidence","tag-dromahame","tag-grave","tag-graveyard","tag-ireland","tag-irish","tag-kilshannig","tag-moody","tag-pendycross","tag-sacred","tag-somber","tag-timoconnor","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wetshutter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wetshutter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wetshutter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wetshutter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wetshutter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6129"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wetshutter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6131,"href":"https:\/\/wetshutter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6129\/revisions\/6131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wetshutter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wetshutter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wetshutter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wetshutter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}