What is recorded here

Graveslab in Baile Chláir stands as a tapering stone marker from the thirteenth or fourteenth century, embedded in the north-west corner of the Claregalway friary chancel. Its bevelled edges and incomplete form suggest a life of burial and memory rather than display, while its position among similar slabs hints at a crowded sacred space where identity faded but presence remained. The stone does not name its dead, yet it holds the weight of forgotten prayers and the quiet certainty that some lives are recorded only in the shape of what survives them.

Bradley and Dunne (1992, 58) noted 'at least five uninscribed cross-slabs of thirteenth/fourteenth century date' at the friary (GA070-035001-) in Claregalway. It is possibly that they are referring to a number of tapering graveslabs: see also GA070-035003-, GA070-035004-, GA070-035006- and GA070-035007-. This incomplete example is one of three set in the ground in the NW corner of the chancel; it lies 0.1m to the S of GA070-035004- and to the SE of GA070-035003-. It consists of a tapering bevelled slab (L 0.94m; Wth 0.52m top; 0.4m bottom). The following image has been uploaded: GA070-035005-_01.jpg Compiled by: Olive Alcock Date of upload: 17 July 2018

Medieval Christian cross-slabs, 13th–14th century. These slabs are significant as they reflect the presence of a friary and the artistic and religious traditions of late medieval Ireland.

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