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This slab (dims 1.83m by 0.68m at E to 0.77m at W; H 7-9cm) has no image but it has a gothic inscription around the edges. It is at the W end of the chancel, in the centre. This is the Plunkett / Birmingham slab, date 1500. (FitzGerald 1911, 414-15, No. XI, Moore 1970, 28, No. 9)
It is described by FitzGerald as: …Except for the inscription in large, raised “black letter”, which runs round the edge of the slab, it is quite plain. The inscription, with the contractions expanded, reads:
HIC IACENT CORPORA EDWARDI PLUNKET, MILITIS DOMINI DE DUNSANI QUI INTERFECTI FUIT APUD / KILODORY IN OFALY / IN TEMPORE COMITIS SURRY LOCUM TENIENTIS HYBERNIE AO. DO. MDXXI, ET EMEBREM / GAM UXORIS SUE AO. DM. MD.
Translation: Here lie the bodies of Sir Edward Plunkett, Knight, Lord of Dunsany, who was slain at Killaderry in Offaly, in the time of the Earl of Surry, Deputy of Ireland, in AD 1521; and of Amy Bermingham his wife, AD 1500.
Of this Edward, fourth Baron Dunsany, Archdall (vol. Vi, p 200) gives the following account: Edward, Lord Dunsany, attended Gerald, eight Earl of Kildare, to the famous battle of Knocktoe in Connaught, 19th August, 1504; and in 1521, having hazarded his person too far in pursuing the rebels O’Carroll and ‘Connor, under the command of Thomas (Howard), Early of Surrey, he was slain by O’Connor, and was interred in the chancel of the church of Dunsany (recte Killeen).
He married Anne (recte Amy), daughter and heir of Philip Bermingham, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas (by his wife Ellen, daughter and heir to Nicholas Strangeways, Chief Remembrancer of the Exchequer, by Alice his wife, daughter of …Delahyde), and had issue.
According to Sir James Ware’s “Annals of Ireland,” Philip Bermingham, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, died on the 30th January, 1489. These Annals also mention Lord Dunsany’s death in 1521.
“Kilodory” is now Killaderry (the church of the oak-wood), a parish in the Barony of Philipstown Lower, King’s County, at that time a portion of the O’Connor Territory of Offaly.
Date of upload: 18 March, 2015
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