When I was a child I spent a lot of time in Celbridge with my Grandparents ‘Jerry & Jenny Murray’ who owned a pub/shop on the main street. In later years my Grandfather sold the pub and it was my father who bought it.  Dad knocked down the old building and built a new pub called Castletown Inn.  He even gave me a job serving customers one Summer.

The day I got to Celbridge I took the dogs for a walk in the grounds of Castletown house.  We went down by the river because I wanted to see the area where we used to go swimming back then.  I did ask a lady if people still go swimming in the river and was told no, mind you, looking at the area where we did swim it’s a wonder none of us got swept away!!

Once the dogs were walked, I photographed the Church of Ireland which is right beside the gates of Castletown house.

And then on through the town I went.  I never knew that Arthur Guinness was from Celbridge until that day when I was taking the photos!  The bridge is at the other end of the town.

The Roman Catholic Church is located in the middle of the town

and over the bridge we have a ‘funeral home’

A few years ago, I was in the graveyard and I walked around reading the stones and ‘talking’ to the men I used to know from the pub that long time ago.  My Grandparents were not from Celbridge, they had moved down from Northern Ireland and my Grandmothers family moved down to Straffan. The Gallivan’s (my great Grandparents) and my Murray Grandparents are all buried in Celbridge. I have included photographs of their graves here.

The Celbridge public graveyard is out the Dublin road, maybe a mile from the town itself.