What is recorded here

St. Molua's twelve-foot stone coffin stood at the south-west edge of the Kyle graveyard, its rough limestone flags barely breaking the soil until a woman named Mrs M. Delaney raised a commemorative cross above it in 1920. That bright gesture marked the grave but also erased the quiet geometry Cooke had measured a century earlier, replacing ancient restraint with human eagerness to remember. The shrine itself left for the British Museum, carrying the place's spirit elsewhere while the stones remained behind, waiting for visitors to imagine what Molua dreamed inside his long stone box.

St. Molua's Grave located in SW end of graveyard (LA015-023002-) described in the 19th century by T. L. Cooke as 'it is most remarkable, being 12 feet in length by three feet in breadth. A large, rude, and uninscribed stone marks one end; and a nearly similar stone points out the other end. The limits of the sides are defined by rough limestone flags standing on an end. The upper edges of these flags are barely visible above the surface of the ground'. Today, two of these sandstone erect slabs are still visible one placed at a right angle to the other, but the clearly defined elements of the plot observed by the Celtic Cross were one suspects altered by the erection of the commemorative Cross and replaced by modern kerbing in 1920 (Fitzpatrick 1993). This cross was erected by Mrs M. Delaney 1920 to commemorate the burial place of St. Molua. Shrine of St. Molua now in British Museum. (Crawford J.R.S.A.I. Vol 53, 1923, 76, 80, 87, 161, 162). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Laois' (Dublin Stationery Office, 1995) compiled by P. David Sweetman, Olive Alcock and Bernie Moran. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 17 December 2007

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