Lived Once, Buried Twice
A Spooky Irish Legend
The small Irish town of Lurgan is located about 18 miles (29 km)
south-west of the city of Belfast in the County of Armagh. With
its straight, wide planned streets and rows of cottages, Lurgan is
characteristic of many County Armagh settlements. In the 19th
Century Lurgan became a major centre for the production of
textiles. However, in the 1700s times were hard and people
made a penny wherever they could. Some trades were 1______
____, however, and rightly so. One such trade was that of the
grave robber. These unsavoury types provided 2_______ to the
many private medical schools throughout the UK, and at the
start of the 18th Century business was booming.
In Ireland, surgeons were prepared to pay a fair price for the newly 3________ and this
provided employment opportunities for the local grave robbers. This practice however, was to
prove a 4________________ experience for one group of grave robbers in Lurgan in 1705.
Local woman Margorie McCall was married to
a doctor. They lived in Church Place, Lurgan
and by all accounts were very happy. When
Margorie fell ill, her husband John was very
worried - in the early 1700s many illnesses we
consider minor today could be fatal and 'the
fever' was a great catch-all for many of these
5__________. Sadly, Margorie died as a result
of her 6________ and was buried in Shankill
Graveyard, not far from her home in Church
Place. She was hastily buried for fear of the
fever spreading, and that should have been the end of the story; however, she was to become
one of the most famous women in Lurgan - and is still talked about today.
Following a traditional Irish wake – where family of the deceased would gather to pray over the
body for a few days - Margorie was buried. Due to her husband's inability to remove it from
her finger, which had swollen since her death, Margorie was buried still wearing her beautiful
gold wedding ring. News of the treasure soon leaked out to the 7______________ who spotted
the opportunity to gain themselves a bonus.
That evening, before the soil had time to settle on Margorie's coffin, the grave-robbers paid a
visit. Working under cover of darkness they dug in the dirt until they reached and opened her
8___________. True to the rumour, the ring was still on her finger. Before removing the body,
they attempted to remove the valuable item, but it wouldn't come off. Being businessmen, they
weren't about to allow such a prize to make its way to a surgeon's slab, so they agreed to cut
off her finger to free the ring.
As soon as blood was drawn from Marjorie’s finger she immediately recovered from the comalike state she had fallen into. She sat bolt upright, eyes wide and wailed like a 9_____________.
There are different reports as to the 10________ of the body-snatchers: one states that one of
the men dropped dead on the spot from fright; the other that they both ran for their lives,
never to been seen in the town again. Whatever the truth, it's pretty certain that they would
never have forgotten that little misadventure. The brave Margorie climbed out of the grave and
stumbled the short distance to her home.
At home, her husband John was sitting with their children and relatives, mourning her passing
and toasting her journey to a better place. Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Upon
hearing the door knock John exclaimed “if your mother were still alive, I’d swear that was her
knock.” Sure enough, when he opened the door John was confronted by his “dead” wife –
dressed in her 11______________, blood dripping from her almost 12_____________ finger,
but very much alive.
It is believed that Margorie’s husband John was so shocked to see his wife alive at the door that
he dropped dead as soon as he saw her.
Now there's a quandary:
joy and sadness in equal
measure for the rest of the
family. Margorie alive and
well, but John deader than
Margorie ever was. He was
buried in the same grave
Margorie had recently
climbed out of.
Eventually Margorie went
on to re-marry and have
several children. When she
did finally die she was
returned to Shankill
Graveyard and to this day her gravestone still stands. It bears the inscription – “Lived Once,
Buried Twice.”
She is still remembered by the townspeople of Lurgan today, and it's said that on occasion she
can be seen 13___________ around Shankill Graveyard, perhaps still looking for the grave
robbers who wronged her.
Lived Once, Buried Twice - Discussion Questions
1. What is a graveyard?
2. Do you know another English name for a graveyard?
3. What is a gravestone?
4. Do you know another English
name for a gravestone?
5. What would you do if you woke
up in a coffin?
6. What does it mean to be
‘buried alive’?
7. Do you live near a cemetery?
8. Have you ever walked through a graveyard/cemetery at night?
9. If you were alone in a dark graveyard at night would you be afraid?
10. Do you believe a person can come back from the dead?
11. Do you know any stories of people who were buried alive?
12. What are some reasons a person might be buried alive?
13. Most people believe that when we die we go to ‘a better place’. What is another name for
this place?
14. What is a surgeon?
15. If you get injured the area may become swollen. What does swollen mean?
16. What is a coma?
Match the following words with their definitions:
1. ailments
2. cadavers
3. frowned upon
4. hair raising
5. wandering
6. fever
7. severed
8. deceased
9. grave robbers
10. banshee
11. fate
12. coffin
13. burial clothes
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
h)
i)
j)
k)
l)
m)
to disapprove of something
dead human bodies
a person who has recently died
very frightening
illnesses
a medical condition in which the body temperature is higher than usual and the
heart beats very fast
a person(s) who steals valuables from graves and tombs
a long box in which the body of a dead person is buried or burned
a female spirit in traditional Irish stories whose crying sound tells you that
someone in your family is going to die
what happens to a particular person or thing, especially something final or
negative, such as death or defeat
garment used to cover a corpse in preparation for burial
to break or separate, especially by cutting
to walk around slowly in a relaxed way or without any clear purpose or
direction
Read the story and answer the following questions:
1. What are some characteristics of a County Armagh town?
2. What was made in the town of Lurgan?
3. Who did the grave robbers sell the cadavers to?
4. What was Margorie’s husband’s job?
5. What was a general term used for many different illnesses?
6. Why was Margorie buried quickly?
7. How long is a traditional Irish wake?
8. How did the surgeons attempt to remove the ring from Margorie’s finger?
9. What did Margorie do when the grave robbers tried to cut her finger off?
10. What had Margorie’s husband been doing before she knocked at the door?
11. Describe Margorie’s appearance when she returned to her home.
12. Where was Margorie’s husband buried?
13. What is written on Margorie’s gravestone?