What is recorded here

Inside the lead coffin beneath Tomb, broken wood and faded fabric still cling to human bone, waiting for someone to remember the name they lost. The chest sits beside the Shee mausoleum in St Mary’s parish church, Kilkenny, its plain limestone front hiding a vault where death was layered rather than recorded. What is remembered above may not match what was buried below.

At St Mary's parish church (KK019-026115-) in Kilkenny. Located beside the Renaissance mural monument of Thomas Shee and Amantissinia [Anistatia?] Dobbin (d.1636) (KK019-026349- ) on the S side of 18th-century 'Shee mausoleum', at the E end of the partially demolished medieval chancel. An undecorated chest tomb (L 2.15m; Wth 0.85m), built of fossiliferous limestone, which sits on a moulded base. The front panel is flanked by plain pilasters. It overlies a stone vault containing disarticulated human bone, broken timber coffins and a 19th-century velvet-wrapped studded coffin. The cover slab was smashed open c. 2000 to reveal a lead-coffin, which in turn has been partially opened. Inside the coffin, fabric and wood from the interior, in addition to human skeletal, remains are visible. The damage was repaired in 2014 (Ó Drisceoil et al 2015; 2016). A rectangular lead plaque which is fixed to the wall above the altar-tomb reads: JOHN POM(W?)ER O’SHE FEB 1810 + 5 JULY 1859 R.I.P. However, this probably relates to the coffin burial in the vault below rather than the interment in the chest tomb. Compiled by: Cóilín Ó Drisceoil Date of upload: 9 January 2023

Chest tomb, 17th–18th century. Associated with the Shee family monument, it reflects local funerary practices and gentry burial traditions in Kilkenny.

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