{{Short description|Graveyard in County Kildare, Ireland}} {{EngvarB|date=October 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}} {{Infobox cemetery |name = Bodenstown Graveyard |image = Bodenstown church.jpg |imagesize = |caption = Church (west gable and north wall) |established = early 14th century? |country = Ireland |location = Bodenstown, Sallins, County Kildare |coordinates = {{Coord|53.266124 |N|6.665241|W|display=it|format=dms}} |type = Public |owner = |size = {{Convert|0.234|ha}} |graves = |website = |findagraveid = 1654173 }} thumb|View of the south wall of the church and the speaker's podium
'''Bodenstown Graveyard''' ({{langx|ga|Reilig Bhaile Uí Bhuadáin}}) is a cemetery located in County Kildare, Ireland.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.interment.net/data/ireland/kildare/bodenstown/bodenstown.htm|title=Bodenstown Churchyard Cemetery – County Kildare, Ireland|website=www.interment.net}}</ref> Containing a ruined medieval church, it is best known as the burial place of the Irish patriot Wolfe Tone (1763–1798).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.countysongs.ie/?attachment_id=584|title=Grave of Wolfe Tone - County Songs|publisher=}}</ref>
==History== [[File:Grave of Wolfe Tone.jpg|thumb|left|Bronze profile of Wolfe Tone and excerpt from Patrick Pearse's 1915 eulogy at his graveside, installed 2013 on the north wall of the church]]
The stone church dates to before 1352, in which year it belonged to Great Connell Priory, and measures {{Convert|12|m|abbr=on}} by {{Convert|7|m|abbr=on}}. It was described as being in good condition in 1612 but was ruined by the 19th century; all that remains are the west gable and north and south walls.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://irelandinruins.blogspot.com/2017/05/old-bodenstown-church-co-kildare.html|title=Ireland In Ruins: Old Bodenstown Church Co Kildare|first=|last=Castlehunter|date=18 May 2017|publisher=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://edmooneyphoto.wordpress.com/2013/09/10/bodenstown-church-cemetry/|title=Bodenstown Church & Cemetery |first=|last=edmooneyphotography|date=10 September 2013|publisher=}}</ref>
After his conviction for treason at a court-martial in Dublin and his subsequent death in November 1798, Tone was buried next to his father at Bodenstown. Semi-official commemorations are believed to have begun in the 1840s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.indymedia.ie/article/76623|title=Annual Wolfetone Commemoration in Bodenstown! - Indymedia Ireland|website=www.indymedia.ie}}</ref> In "Tone's Grave", Thomas Davis describes his visit there {{circa|1843}}.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/wolfe-tone-grave-saved-ballad|title=Remembering how Wolfe Tone's grave was saved on his birthday|date=20 June 2019|website=IrishCentral.com}}</ref>
Pilgrimages to Wolfe Tone's graveside were first held in 1873, the 75th anniversary of his death. After gaps in the 1880s, they resumed in 1891, and have been held every year since, except in 1906–10 and 1921.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.historyireland.com/featured-archive-post/pilgrimages-to-tones-grave-at-bodenstown-1873-1922-time-place-popularity/|title=Pilgrimages to Tone’s grave at Bodenstown, 1873–1922: time, place, popularity|date=27 April 2015|publisher=}}</ref> The ceremony, involving a march from Sallins railway station to the graveyard, took place on the Sunday closest to Tone's birthday, 20 June. Since 1922 there have been rival parades on different June Sundays due to schisms within Irish republicanism.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kildare.ie/ehistory/index.php/processions-to-remember-wolfe-tone/|title=Processions to Remember Wolfe Tone |website=www.kildare.ie}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rte.ie//archives/2017/0619/883844-wolfe-tone-commemoration/|title=Wolfe Tone Commemoration|website=RTÉ Archives}}</ref>
In October 1969, the Tones' tomb was bombed and damaged by the Ulster loyalist UVF.<ref name=":122">{{Cite news |date=11 July 2013 |title=Unveiling at Tone's Grave |url=https://kildare.ie/ehistory/index.php/unveiling-at-tones-grave/ |work=The Leinster Leader}}</ref> In June 1975, the same group sought to derail a train at near Sallins carrying 250 Official IRA supporters to the annual commemoration, and murdered a witness to their attempt, a local farm labourer, Christopher Phelan.<ref>{{cite web |last=Sutton |first=Malcolm |title=CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths |url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/cgi-bin/dyndeaths.pl?querytype=date&day=22&month=06&year=1975 |website=cain.ulst.ac.uk}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Sunday World on the 1975 murder of Christy Phelan at Sallins, County Kildare |url=http://www.michael.donegan.care4free.net/sunday_world150204.htm |access-date=2024-04-01 |website=www.michael.donegan.care4free.net}}</ref> In 2013, the Tone's headstone was replaced with a tomb of Irish limestone and, overlooking it on a church wall, a bronze relief portraying Tone in profile next to an excerpt from Pearse's 1915 eulogy.<ref name=":122"/>
There is one British Commonwealth war grave of the First World War, of Private Walter Duffy of the Leinster Regiment, who died on 7 July 1918.<ref>{{cite web|title=Bodenstown Old Graveyard, with list of casualties|url=http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/2000586/BODENSTOWN%20OLD%20GRAVEYARD|publisher=Commonwealth War Graves Commission |access-date=7 February 2019}}</ref>
==Notable burials== thumb|Wolfe Tone's grave * Theobald Wolfe Tone (1763–1798) * Private W. J. Duffy of the Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment, died 7 July 1918
==References== {{Reflist}}
Category:Cemeteries in County Kildare Category:Religion in County Kildare