Armorial plaque (present location)

The National Monuments Service's description

Armorial plaque of Richard Shee, currently on the E gable of the Shee Alms House (KK019-026100-) fronting onto Rose Inn Street. The plaque was inserted into a niche N of the two-light window at first-floor level during restoration works carried out between 1978 and 1980. Carrigan (1905, vol. 3, 225) records the plaque at the medieval church at Sheastown (KK024-001001-) c. 1900 and gives the inscription as: INSIGNIA RICHARDI SHEE MILITIS QVI HOC OPVS FECIT AO D 1578. This translates as, 'The arms of Richard Shee, Knight, who made this work in the Year of Our Lord 1578' (Crotty 2009, 195). Carrigan (1905, vol. 3, 225) contends that, 'This slab does not seem to have belonged originally to the church. It was probably brought here from Sir Richard Shee's castle of Bonnetstown [KK019-003001-], or from his house in Kilkenny'. Crotty (2009, 195) notes that Richard Shee was only knighted in 1589 and thus suggests that the plaque could not have been made as early as 1578.

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 15 March 2023

References

Crotty, G. 2009 A guide to the heraldry of the civic families of Kilkenny in Elizabethan and early Stuart times. In J. Bradley and M. O'Dwyer (eds.), Kilkenny through the centuries: chapters in the history of an Irish city, 140-217. Kilkenny. Kilkenny Borough Council.

Carrigan, Rev. W. 1905 (Reprint 1981) The history and antiquities of the diocese of Ossory, 4 vols. Kilkenny. Roberts Books and Wellbrook Press.