Headstone

The National Monuments Service's description

Now located in the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin (DU018-295----). Figure was discovered in the gardens of Kilmokea House, Great Island, Campile, and presumed to have come from adjacent cemetery (WX039-018006-) (Freitag 2004, 135). Described by Freitag as a 'wedge-shaped schistose slab (dims. H 0.84m; top Wth. 0.3m; bottom Wth. 0.25m) with headstone inscription (reading: 'MB.D. 12 March 1705.a 72') on one side and Sheela on the other. Figure crude and somewhat atypical; defined by grooves roughly describing figure of woman. Head shaped like an American football, without facial features, connected to torso by most remarkable big hole (c.4 cm deep). The only other Sheela with hole in that position is Seir Kieran. Angular shoulders; two neatly carved holes in chest area indicating breasts; straight arms reaching down to genital area; legs apart and straight, no feet. Traces of a horizontal and two vertical lines between legs' (Freitag 2004, 135).

A re-examination shows that this stone is a sliver of a headstone with a crude hourglass on the reverse as a memento mori that has been adapted into a human form but without arms or legs (Digital Heritage Age). The inscription reads: MB…d 12….ma….rch..1763…d 72. See the attached link: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/nmi-1994-40-great-island-05e114a2c43b461ca24c7ae8de64cc4c

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien.

Date of upload: 05 June 2012.
Amended: 12 April, 2021

References

Freitag, B. 2004 Sheela-na-gigs: unravelling an enigma. London. Routledge.