What is recorded here

Diméin Bhaile Ghib is a stone porch chamber where a salvaged carving of a bowler-hatted man still faces the doorway. It left Randalstown castle around 1970 and entered St Patrick’s Church at Donaghpatrick with its crisp coat cuffs and diagonal sash intact. The chamber keeps that remembered shape beside a memorial slab, making an ordinary entrance into a place where one brother or another may still be waiting to be named.

Set upright inside the entrance porch to St Patrick’s Church of Ireland church at Donaghpatrick (ME017-034006-) on the E wall and to the left of the memorial slab (ME017-034008-). This stone (Wth 0.45m; H 0.35m) was moved here from the site of Randalstown castle (ME025-069----) c. 1970 (Everard 2000, 171). It has a naive sculpture in false relief of the upper body of a man with shoulder-length hair, a bowler hat and a sash or a sword-belt over the right shoulder. He has a cravat at the throat and the cuffs of the coat are turned up elaborately in the fashion of the early eighteenth century. It may be intended to represent one of the Everard brothers, Mathias or Christopher. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 15 April, 2019

Likely dating to the early medieval period, this stone sculpture may have originally served a ritual or commemorative function before being repositioned near the church. Its meaning or specific folklore is not recorded, but its placement suggests a possible Christian adaptation of an earlier prehistoric or pagan monument.

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.