Attanagh is really such a pretty place and yesterday when I was there a friend called me. I said "I'm in a graveyard in Attanagh", pronouncing the word "Att an ah". Now, I don't have a Laois accent, I went to live there when I was about 10 and whilst I went to boarding school in Kilkenny my accent is not the same as that of people brought up in the area all of their lives. I don't have a strong accent of any sort (or so I'm told) and then neither does my friend have a strong Laois/Kilkenny accent either. This difference is more about the way names can be pronounced - where we put the emphasis if we do
So, the friend asked "Where did you say". I replied - you know, Att an ah - a really pretty place off the Kilkenny to Durrow road. "You mean A *tan* ah, " said my friend with real emphasis on the tan part of the name.
Anyway - A tan ah or At tan ah or Att an ah, however anyone would pronounce it is really very pretty. I remember first going there years ago before I knew anything about civil parishes and I didn't know which civil parish I was in, matter of fact, I didn't even know which county. I knew I was somewhere close to the Kilkenny / Laois border and it was the graveyards of County Laois I was transcribing and I had been coming from co. Kilkenny and somewhere quite close to Attanagh I'd seen a signpost welcoming me to County Laois. So, I transcribed it.
Since I came to know more about Irish genealogy and these two counties in particular, I know that the civil parish of Attanagh spreads through the two counties. St. Brigid's Church in Attanagh, belonged to the Union of Killermogh, Diocese of Ossory, so we're really talking Laois, but the people buried there were mainly from nearby Ballyragget or other parts of Kilkenny. The village of Attanagh is in Co. Kilkenny. I know that cos it looks this way on a map, and my friend said that her mother used to go to Ladyswell in Attanagh, Co. Kilkenny to get Holy Water.
I didn't find a signpost leading to a Holy Well, but maybe next time I go back there I will
