Cabra History.Com

‘The black cross hanging on the wall above this old bed was kept in our parlour in Cabra West for donkey’s years. It was up on the wall over the old sideboard. When my great grandmother was dying in 1917 this cross was placed over her bed because the Priest refused to give her the Last Rites. My great granny had once been a prostitute and had spent several years in jail for her part in a murder. Two of her sisters were also prostitutes and one of them was a Madam who ran several brothels in the area known as The Monto. When she died her daughter, my Granny Burke, who later lived in Cabra West, took the cross down and would loan it out for other unfortunate girls who lay dying. It became known as “The Girl’s Cross”. When my Granny died in 1964 the cross went to my mother and she looked after it. On her death it eventually passed to me. In recent times I donated it to Terry Fagan for inclusion in his Monto Museum in Railway Street…’