What is recorded here

Kildare Cathedral now holds the headless Sheela-na-gig carved beneath Bishop Wellesley’s tomb capital, moved from Great Connell Priory after his death in 1539. Her bent knees and splayed arms still frame her genitals on the underside of the stone, a defiant body hidden where a bishop was remembered. Perhaps she was carved to mock death, mark birth or warn men about desire, while the cathedral kept her beneath a sacred name.

A Sheela-na-gig carved on the underside of a capital on the tomb of Bishop Wellesley (d. 1539) (KD022-029034-) which was originally located at Great Connell Priory (KD023-016----), and has since been re-erected in Kildare Cathedral (KD022-029005-) (Freitag 2004, 134). This Sheela-na-gig was described by Freitag (op. cit.) as being ‘carved on slab; head cut off; arms splayed out with hands joining over pudenda; legs widely splayed, knees bent’. See KD022-029075- for present location. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 24 May 2012

A Sheela-na-gig carving, typically associated with medieval rather than prehistoric periods, often linked to themes of fertility, childbirth, or apotropaic symbolism. Its presence on a 16th-century tomb suggests possible reuse of an older stone or adaptation of a traditional motif.

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