Grave of Agnes Elizabeth Jones (1832 – 1868)

Agnes Jones Grave

Agnes Elizabeth Jones was born in England in 1832 to Irish parents. The family moved around a lot as her father was in the army and as a young girl, the family moved to Mauritius staying for 6 years. It was during this time she developed her desire to help others and her devotion to religion.

When she was 11 the family moved to Fahan. At the age of 21 and 3 years after the death of her father, she visited the deaconess clinic in Kaiserswerth in Germany and was very impressed by the work of the deaconesses. On her return to Ireland, she set about caring for the injured.

During a spell in London undertaking formal training as a nurse, she met Florence Nightingale, whose recommendation secured a position for Agnes in Liverpool. Agnes took up a role as Superintendent of the Liverpool Workhouse Infirmary on the 31st of March, 1865.

In 1868, an epidemic of typhus swept through Liverpool, and after giving up her own bed for one of her nurses who had become ill she also succumbed to the fever and died on the 19th of February 1868.

So that the patients could pay their respects the coffin was displayed in the main hall of the Workhouse Infirmary. Her body was then brought home here to Fahan where she is buried in the old monastery graveyard in the centre of the village.

After seeing the historic sites of Fahan head to The Red Door for some delicious food.