Tomb - effigial

The National Monuments Service's description

Within a graveyard (KK020-050002-) associated with the church of St Fiachra (KK020-050001-). Indicated on the 1st (1839) ed. OS 6-inch map immediately S of a small building labelled 'St. Fiachra's Church'. According to Carrigan (1905, vol. 3, 220) this building was removed in 1869 to make way for the Kenny Purcell monument which now occupies its site. A photograph published in Carrigan (ibid.) shows the effigy of an ecclesiastic standing upright immediately right of and against the wall forming the entrance to the Kenny Purcell mortuary enclosure. This is the covering stone of an effigial tomb. Carrigan describes how, 'the head was knocked off many years ago, and the hands do not appear. The present height of the figure, that is, wanting the head, is 5 ft [c. 1.5m]. The people all call this "St. Feechra's Statue" (ibid.). The ecclesiastic is vested in a chasuble which falls in formalized folds down the front and the cowl of the alb appears above the neck of the chasuble. Similar effigies have been dated from the mid-13th to the 14th century (Hunt 1974, vol. 1, 173, 213; vol. 2, fig. 72 and 91)

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 9 December 2020

References

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

Hunt, J. 1974 Irish medieval figure sculpture 1200-1600, 2 vols. Dublin. Irish University Press.