Wall monument in Cashel

Attached to the wall at the S side of the front elevation of St. John's C of I Cathedral which is on the site of a medieval church (TS061-025013-), near the SW angle. The remains of this limestone monument comprises five individual pieces which may not be contemporary or originally from the one monument. The components include a broken panel (L 0.65m; H 0.55m; D 0.25m) decorated with the Passion of Christ, an inscribed fragment from a graveslab (L 0.52m; H 0.12m) and a coat of arms (L 0.55m. H 0.61m) flanked by two individually cut volute brackets. It rests on a tiered limestone corner plinth. The panel, which surmounts the monument, is more likely to have been at the base of the monument originally or may have come from a separate altar tomb. The dexter and sinister edges of the panel are missing. The central figure, that of Christ on the cross, rests on a skull and cross-bones representing Golgotha. The figures on either side are rather crudely executed and are within raised rectangular panels. That on the sinister side may be Our Lady with her hands clasped, holding a Rosary, while the figure on the dexter side may be St. John. On either side of the figures there are floral motifs, the sinister side is better preserved and appears to depict a tree blossoming with flowers. The graveslab fragment is part of a 16th/17th graveslab border and contains the word 'HIC', meaning 'Here', the start of a latin inscription in raised black letter script. The armorial plaque consists of a rectangular block of cut limestone decorated with a heater-shaped shield surmounted by a crest and surrounded by mantling terminating in two four-looped knots with tassels. The shield is impaled, the sinister containing the arms of the wife M C charged with a bend decorated with rosettes alternating with trefoils slipped, between two clover-leaf crosses. The dexter contains the arms of the husband I S impaled and the crescent moon is placed above the two fleur-de-lys. The coat of arms is almost identical to that on the Market House marriage-stone (TS061-025015-), dated 1631, and bears the same initials, I S and M C. The crest consists of a pelican in her piety issuing from a gentleman's helm. The arms of the volute brackets, of which the dexter is better preserved, are decorated with a continuous leaf pattern and the area inside the brackets is decorated with a blossoming plant, mirroring the theme on the altar panel. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 26 August 2011