What is recorded here

Lixnaw’s Sheela-na-gig still sits in Dublin after emerging from the River Cashen, her coarse stone body carved with splayed legs, pendulous breasts and hands gripping her own pudenda. She is not a modest goddess or a decorative anomaly; she is a boundary marker made flesh, exposing the urge to hide, measure or control life. To view her is to be viewed back, stripped of the certainty that humanity can be reduced to a small clean shape.

Now located in the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin (Cherry 1992, 6). Discovered in bed of River Cashen near Lixnaw castle (KE015-060----). Described by Freitag as a figure ‘carved in relief on one face of roughly rectangular block of coarse feldspathic grit, possibly old red sandstone, and badly weathered. Large head with pointed chin (somewhat damaged); bulbous eyes outlined by pecked groove. Pendulous, clearly marked breasts; broad shoulders. Flexed arms pass behind widely splayed thighs with both hands grasping swollen-looking, sagging pudenda from below, small touch-hole underneath. Legs splayed and bent with feet turned outwards. Figure holds a raised oval object under left arm in similar position as Lavey, Co. Cavan’ (Freitag 2004, 137). Cross-referenced with DU018-311----. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 06 June 2012

Dated to the 10th to 13th century, this Sheela-na-gig is likely associated with medieval Christian symbolism, often linked to themes of fertility, childbirth, or spiritual temptation. Such figures are commonly found at the bases of churches or monastic sites, though their exact purpose remains debated.

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