Wall monument (present location)

The National Monuments Service's description

This rectangular panel (0.60m x 0.52m) comprises the lower portion of a much larger memorial or wall monument that was commissioned by Eleanor Butler, Countess of Desmond in 1624. The fragments that make up this panel were taken from Sligo in the mid-19th century and eventually found their way to Braganstown House in or after 1877 (Timoney 2013, 113). The triangular upper portion of this memorial (0.72m wide and 0.41m high) was found in a deep well at the east end of Quay Street, Sligo, in 1989 and is now on display in the visitor centre at Sligo Abbey (SL014-292----). It has a simple frame and it is evident that this would have continued around the outside of the panel: this is missing. When grouped together (see Timoney 2013, 112) the inscription would have read: ELINORA/ BVTLER COM/ITISSA DESMOND / IN MEMORIAM / [P]ASSIONIS CHRISTI ET / SVI MARITI DONATI CON/OR MILITIS COMITATUS / SLIGO DOMINI MOR/TVI ANO DNI 1609 ET SUAE/ FILIAE DOMINAE ELISAB/ETHAE GERALD SEPULTAE / IN MONASTERIO DE / SLIGO CVM PREDICTO / DONATO / AN 1623 / ME FIERI FECIT AN / DNI 1624. This may be translated as: Eleanor Butler Countess of Desmond in memory of the Passion of Christ, and of her husband Donagh O’Conor, Knight, Lord of the County of Sligo, who died the year of Our Lord 1609, and of her daughter Lady Elizabeth Gerald, who was buried in the monastery of Sligo, with the aforesaid Donagh in the year 1623, caused me to be erected in the year of Our Lord 1624. The original location of this memorial is unknown but it has been suggested that it may have been inserted in the wall of a chapel in the castle of Sligo (Timoney 2013).

The precise location of this panel has not been ascertained with certainty. Timoney records that the fragments were ‘built into an inside wall of a refurbished building’ at Broganstown House. The coordinates for the centre of the centre of the courtyard are provided for convenience as its indicative location.

Compiled by: Paul Walsh

Date of upload: 12 September 2014

References

Timoney, M.A. 2013 The O'Connor Sligo memorial, Sligo Castle, Quay St., Sligo. In M.A. Timoney (ed.) Dedicated to Sligo. Thirty-four essays on Sligo's past. Publishing Sligo's Past. Keash, Co. Sligo, 111-15.