Jean Farrelly — Cashel

On the first floor of the SE facade of nos. 104-105 (John Feehan's pub), in the centre of Main Street, Cashel. It is incorporated into the masonry of the building and flanks the central sash window on its W side. The latin inscription, written in plain raised script in two lines at the base of the plaque, reads: Thomas Archiepiscopus Cashelensis Aº Domini 1647. The Archbishop in question is Thomas Walsh, RC Archbishop of Cashel who was born in Waterford, educated initially for a commercial career in Lisbon and subsequently for the priesthood at the Irish College in Salamanca (Maher 1927, 15). Having served in the diocese of Waterford for twenty years, he was consecrated Archbishop in Rome on June 7th, 1626 and died and was buried in 1654 in the Church of St. James, Compostella (ibid. 16-17). The date on the plaque possibly commemorates the endowment of a building by him, as he restored and refitted many Protestant churches for Catholic worship in the relatively tolerant atmosphere immediately following the Confederation of Kilkenny (1642-49) (ibid.) (FitzPatrick 1994, 564). It may also refer to the completion of an ecclesiastical college for the town which he apparently financed in the years before the Confederacy. The plaque (dims. 0.63m x 0.48m) is executed in limestone, lightly dressed with linear tooling, with a diagonal seam of quartz running through its upper half. It is framed within a cable moulding. The shield is rectangular with an ogee-shaped base and is charged with a chevron between three broad arrowheads, points upwards. The crest comprises a cross with clover-leaf terminals surmounted by what appears to be a ring collar and a cord knotted and tasselled. According to the proprietor it was painted at one time and has since been stripped of same. Its original location is unknown but it is in its present position for at least a century. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 26 August 2011