Indicated — Thurles Townparks

Situated to the E of Barry's Bridge at the end of St Mary's Avenue on a natural rise of ground in undulating countryside. A modern church located in a graveyard which may have been associated with the medieval church (TN041-042009). It is possible that this was not the site of the medieval church as it is located outside the medieval core of the town (Bradley 1985, 54). By the late thirteenth century St Mary's church had come under the control of Owney Abbey in Limerick (Johnstone 1989, 187). The church of the Blessed Virgin Mary is mentioned in 1432 (COD, vol. 3, 84). In 1562 all the possessions of Owney Abbey were put in lay hands (Johnstone 1989, 187). By the time of the Civil Survey (1656) the church was in ruins and in 1673 Lady Thurles was buried in Ladyes Chapple beside St Mary's Church (Corbett 1993, 145). Pococke in 1752 described a church which is built onto the tower of an old church which is located to the E of the river and where there is a monument to the Archers of Archer's Court (Stokes 1891, 174). The tower, together with two ruined buildings, is depicted in Grose's Antiquities of Ireland (1791-7, vol. 2, pl. 105). The modern St Mary's church was built in 1820 and it is recorded in the OS Letters (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 3, 7) that this church was built near a castle called Church castle which may have been the tower of the old St Mary's as recorded by Pococke in 1752 (Carey and Farrelly 1994, 98) and depicted in Gros (ibid.). In fact the modern church may have incorporated part of the original tower. There is an impressive table-tomb (TN041-042010) dedicated to the Archer family dated 1520 in the graveyard. It has a double effigy on top of the tomb with a depiction of the knight and his lady with their feet resting on a dog. The sides of the tomb contain depictions of six apostles each one contained under a round-arched niche springing from moulded capitals and columns. On one end of the tomb there is a depiction of the Crucifixion, Our Lady and St John (Hunt 1974, vol. 1, 230). There is a wall memorial dated (TN041-042012) 1683 in the graveyard, N of the church, built up against a free-standing stone wall. The coat of arms is surmounted by a side view of a helmet on which is standing a lion rampant, with tail in the air. Under the coat of arms there is a scroll with the initials IG and EP. The wall memorial rests on a limestone altar. There is a sixteenth/seventeenth-century recumbent graveslab (TN041-042011) located on the S side of the church, S of the W door, consisting of an eight-armed floriated cross with a knop under which are the symbols of the Passion. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien. Date of upload: 22 September 2008