What is recorded here

Athenry Dominican church still holds the Higenn graveslab, marking Hugh, Novelle, Thomas and Donell beneath a border of prayer carved in 1684. The broken rectangle lies third in a row of four, its surface crowded with a ploughman, sock and coulter rather than a coat of arms. Those tools turn death into daily labour, suggesting the family measured worth in soil, seed and the risk of every sown field.

This rectangular graveslab (L 1.56m; Wth at top 0.74m; Wth at base 0.69m; T 0.11m) is at the W end of the aisle of the Dominican church (GA084-001014-) and is the third slab in a row of four – moving north-south from the N wall. The bottom left side is broken. An inscription running around its edges was transcribed by Macalister (1913, 215, XV, Fig. 8 No. 15) as: '(PRAY F) OR THE SOVLES OF HVGH HIGENN AND NOVLLE CONENN HIS WIFE AND HIS SON THO(M) AS HIGENN AND DONELL HIGENN AND THIRE POSTERTY 1684'. Within the frame provided by the inscription, the occupational symbols of a ploughman, a plough sock and coulter, are visible. (Bradley and Dunne 1992, 38-9) The following image has been uploaded: GA084-001055-_01.jpg Compiled by: Olive Alcock Date of upload: 12 November 2018

Medieval Christian graveslab, 14th–15th century; significant as part of the burial assemblage in the former Dominican church, reflecting funerary practices of the late medieval period in Ireland.

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