Graveslab

The National Monuments Service's description

In the chancel of the medieval church of Kilferagh (KK024-001001-), close to the N wall (Manning 2012, 144, 147). A 16th-century graveslab described by Carrigan (1905, vol. 3, 224) as a, ‘large altar-tomb with a beautifully interlaced cross in the centre. The inscription is partially covered by a huge tree at the lower end. It is in Old English lettering, running round the sides and continued on bands at both sides of the cross. All of it at present visible:
Hic jacet Robertus fforstal generosus qui obiit x4 die mensis Septembris Aodi 85 et exor ei9 Eat……. Ao etiam di 1583 nee non dns Jacobus fforstal qi obiit [uncut] & uxor eius Elisia Shortall qe obiit vigessimo 5 …… 1597 una cum AElana Comerford….ore predicti Jacobi qi duo posteris hunc tumulum fieri suis impensis fec…. Opifisi me Jacobus Conney 16 8 (sic).
Translation – Here lie Robert fforstal, Esqr., who died Sept. 14th 1585, and his wife Catherine….[who] also [died]….. 1583; also Mr. James fforstal who died [uncut], and his wife Ellis Shortall who died 25th of …..1597, together with Ellen Comerford, wife of said James, who both erected this tomb, at their own expense, for their posterity. James Conney, maker. 16[0]8’.

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 14 September 2021

References

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

Manning, C. 2012 Kilferagh, Co. Kilkenny: a medieval parish and its church. Journal of Irish Archaeology 21, 139-56.