Graveslab in Gardens (kilkenny City By., St. Mary’s Par.)

At St Mary's parish church (KK019-026115-) in Kilkenny. A mensa, composed of fossiliferous limestone, for the chest tomb or ledger of Patrick Flood and Margaret Kowragh (d. 1615) (Carrigan 1905, vol. 3, 93; Cockerham 2009, 354). A rectangular slab (L 1.86m; Wth 0.66m) showing interlaced eight-armed cross with fleur-de-lis terminals on a shaft that rises from a stepped base. The shaft is knobbed below the cross-head and flanked on either side by streamers. At the centre of the cross-head there is a Maltese cross. A marginal false relief inscription in Latin black lettering reads: HIC. JACET. PATRUS. FFLOUD. QUONDAM.BURGENSIS.CIVITATIS.KILKENIE.QUI OBIIT [ ] DIE [ ] ET. MARGARETA KOWRAG[h] UXOR. EIUS. QUI OBIIT [ ] DIE [ ] W..1615 This translates as, Here lies Patrick Flood burgess of the city of Kilkenny who died [ ] day [ ] and his wife Margaret Kowragh who died [ ] day [ ] W 1615 The slab was set into the floor of the former 'Monuments Room' in the N transept in the 1960s. It was moved to its present location in the S transept in 2015. Compiled by: Cóilín Ó Drisceoil Date of upload: 4 January 2023

Graveslab in Gardens is a 17th-century chest tomb mensa, carved from fossiliferous limestone, associated with the tomb of Patrick Flood and Margaret Kowragh. It is significant as an example of early modern funerary art in Ireland, reflecting the use of local materials and the memorialisation of lay individuals in a Catholic context during the post-Reformation period.