Armorial plaque

The National Monuments Service's description

On the front elevation of 17th-century almshouses in Youghal's North Main Street. Armorial plaque bearing the coat of arms of Richard Boyle, Earl of Cork, who founded the almhouses in 1613 (Kelly and O'Keeffe 2018, 31). It consists of a roughly square limestone plaque, with the coat of arms carved in relief, slightly recessed within a moulded frame. The coat of arms is comprised of an escutcheon surmounted by a helmet and lion's head as a crest. It is framed by mantling, but also two figures standing sideways, a woman on the left and a man on the right, apparently naked, and therefore possibly representing Adam and Eve. They are both standing on what may be human heads, though they are two weathered to be formally identified as such. The two figures are standing with their lower arm outstretched as if holding the ribbon extending underneath the shield, and which may have originally been inscribed with the Boyle motto, ‘Dominus Providebit’, which translates to ‘The Lord will provide’, though it is most often interpreted as 'God's Providence is my inheritance'. The escutcheon is also too worn to be visible, but we know sir Richard's arms featured a diagonal line of battlements dividing a silver (argent) and a red (gules) field. In the detailed diaries Sir Richard kept, preserved in the Lismore Papers collection, in an entry dated to the 20th June 1615 he ‘agreed with the stone cutter to make & carve 4 arms & crests with the borders in free stones, one [at] my gallery window, one at my schoolhouse, one at my almshouse and another at my house at Lismore’ (Grosart 1886, 76).

 

Compiled by Anne-Julie Lafaye

 

Date of upload: 27 November 2025

References

Grosart, A. Rev. 1886 The Lismore Papers (first series), 5 Vols. London. Chiswick Press, C. Whittingham and Co., Tooks Court, Chancery Lane.

Kelly, D. and O’Keeffe, T. 2018 Charitable constructions. Archaeology Ireland 32-1, 30-34.