Wall monument in Unknown Townland

16th-century wall-memorial (H. 0.63m x Wth 0.54m) of Geoffrey Fyche, Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral (DU018-020269-) located in the south choir aisle of the cathedral (Fenton 2015, 24).  According to Albert Fenton (2015, 24-5) Geoffrey Fyche was a member of a Dublin merchant family and was probably related to Thomas Fiche, sub-prior of Christ Church Cathedral. In 1495 he was made prebendary of St Audoen's Church and a year later he was appointed Archdeacon of Glendalough. In 1529 he became Treasurer of St. Patrick's Cathedral.  He died in 1537 and was buried in the choir of the cathedral near to his predecessor Dean Sutton.  The memorial was moved to its present location in 1863.  This memorial was described in the Urban Survey of Dublin City (Bradley and King 1988, Vol. 1, 83) as a; ‘Wall memorial brass in south choir aisle. Rectangular plaque showing a cleric kneeling at a prie-dieu [prayer-desk]. He is dressed in a long gown with a silver inlaid cope over his shoulders. On the upper right hand side is an altar showing the pieta and five figures. Two prayer labels attached to the cleric's joined hands are inscribed in Gothic lettering: L MISERERE MICHI PIE R REX DNE JHU XPE. The inscription, also in Gothic lettering, below the decoration is: ORATE PRO AIA MAGISTRI GALFRIDI FFYCHE HUIUS ECCLECIE CATHEDRAL IS DECAM QUI HUTUS MORTALITATIS DIEM CLAUSIT EXTREMUM ANNO DMCE INCARNACONIS MILLESIMO CCCCC XXXO SEPTIMO AC MENSIS APRILIS DIE OCTAVO ET SEPULTUS EST IN HAC TUMBA CUIUS ANIME PROPICIETUR DEUS AMEN’ (Mason 1820, 146). Memorial brass described by King (1994, 127) as a 'Rectangular plaque in a plaster frame on the south wall of the choir. The upper half shows a cleric kneeling at a prie-dieu praying before an altar with reredos. The scene is three-dimensional in construction, giving the impression that one is looking through a flattened arch into a round-vaulted room with linenfold wood panelling and tiled floor. The arch is supported on rectangular columns with a vertebrate stem of tulips, beading and foliage sprays in the spandrels above. The cleric is dressed in a cassock and surplice under an almuce, depicted in silver or tinned bronze, over his shoulders. A heraldic shield, showing a bird-inhabited tree and the letters GF, hangs on the left side of the room while the right side has an altar, covered with a cloth and an embroidered frontal, and the reredos depicts a Lamentation. Depictions of the Lamentation are not known in Ireland, where the Virgin with her dead son on her knees, the Pieta, is more popular (King 1984, 338). Here the Pieta is extended to include five other figures. These may be identified as Mary Magdalen kneeling on the right and possibly Joseph of Arimathaea on the left. A clean-shaven male figure on his left may be John, while a second male figure in the upper right corner could be Nicodemus. One other of the Holy Women is included (Schiller 1972, 174-9). The Roman letters INRI occur above the Lamentation and the letters PP are incised on the altar. Two prayer labels are attached to the cleric's hands and are inscribed in Gothic Latin 'MISERERE MICHI PIE' and 'REX DNE JHU XPE\ The lower half of the brass has the following inscription, also in Gothic Latin: 'ORATE PRO AJA MAGISTRI GALFRIDI FFYCHE HUIUS ECCLECIE / CATHEDRALIS DECAM QUI HUIUS MORTALITATIS DIEM CLAUSIT / EXTREMUM ANNO DMCE INCARNACONIS MILLESIMO CCCCC / XXXO SEPTIMO AC MENSIS APRILIS DIE OCTAVO ET SEPULTUS EST / IN HAC TUMBA CUIUS ANIME PROPICIETUR DEUS AMEN'. This brass is from the London workshops and belongs in the ‘G’ series (Norris 1977, 157-61).   According to King (ibid., 116) ; 'The earliest example in this series is the 1528 brass [DU018-507----] to Dean Sutton in St Patrick's Cathedral. It and the 1537 brass close by dedicated to the memory of Dean Fyche are very similar to the Tudor brasses of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries in England (Macklin 1928, 216-38). Macklin actually compares the Honywode brass, 1522, in Windsor Chapel (ibid., 218-19) with these two brasses in St Patrick's. In all instances the entire surface of the brass is engraved and all three depict a cleric dressed in surplice and almuce, kneeling at a prie-dieu with a prayer label issuing from the hands. Each plaque has a religious depiction in one corner before which the cleric is praying; on the Sutton monument there is a defaced Trinity (Roe 1979, 132) and the Fyche brass has a Lamentation. The lower part of the plaque carries an inscription which identifies the cleric and asks for prayers for the repose of the soul'.   Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien