What is recorded here

Graveslab in Callan South lies cracked across the nave of St Mary’s church, bearing a faint cross and ghostly lettering that may mark Ann Comer or a surgeon named Philip Comerford. Carrigan placed it near the year 1600, yet the stone still resists full reading, preserving only enough to suggest that ordinary people once occupied this church with their names, trades and deaths.

Lying prostrate in the centre of the nave of St Mary’s church (KK026-010012-), Callan. The cracked centre portion of a limestone slab (total L 1.09m; Wth 0.86m; min. T 0.05m). It is decorated with an incised cross-shaft. There is a border on one side and between it and the cross-shaft there are two vertical lines of lettering, however, this is too faint to be legible. The edge on the side with the border and inscription is chamfered (Wth 0.06m) and the opposite edge is straight sided. A small broken off piece (L 0.31m; Wth 0.29m) from the upper dexter side lies in its former position. Though inconclusive, this may be portion of the slab which Carrigan (1905, vol. 3, 300) refers to as in the north side of the nave, the ‘upper half of a floor slab. The inscription, in raised Old English [Black Letter] characters, runs in three parallel lines along by the right side of the cross which occupies the centre. The “Sh” in the second line is apparently the beginning of the word “Shirurgeon” (i.e. Surgeon). This tomb dates from about the year 1600’. Carrigan (ibid.) transcribes the inscription, which is in English, as ‘Here liethe Ann Comer…. To Philip Comerford, Sh…. Of good fame, who died the….’. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 13 November 2019

Christian graveslab; early medieval period (probably 8th–11th century). Its incised cross-shaft indicates a high-status burial and reflects the artistic traditions of early Irish Christianity.

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