What is recorded here

No human body is certain inside the stones, but the shape still points to death and memory. The chamber measured a person, curved at the shoulders and raised at the head as if making a bed for someone who would never leave Kilkenny. It stood outside St Mary’s for generations, taking rain and witness, before entering the nave in 2016. What it holds now is not certainty but attention: a stone room kept for the danger of forgetting.

At St Mary's parish church (KK019-026115-) in Kilkenny. A 13th/14th-century sarcophagus (L 2.37m; Wth 0.81m). Bradley (1988, 86) describes the coffin as, 'Grey fossiliferous limestone. Good condition. Placed externally against the south wall of the nave. Smooth interior and exterior. Penannular head with pillow raised 5cm above the floor. Curved Shoulders. Two soakage holes, both cylindrical, diameter 7 and 6cm. Bevel at foot. Externally the sides taper inwards slightly’. It had been placed against the external face of the S wall of the nave before c. 1900 (Carrigan 1905, vol. 3, 97-8) and was moved into the nave of the church in 2016. Compiled by: Cóilín Ó Drisceoil Date of upload: 21 November 2022

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