What is recorded here
An unidentified abbot of Ballintubber abbey church sleeps beneath a carved chest tomb at the east end of the chancel. The two front panels wear ogee canopies, pinnacles and repeated vine-leaf ornaments, while a restored rounded arch frames the niche. Thomas O’Ronain or Edmund de Stanton may have occupied it, though neither name is certain. Their recorded faults make the anonymous dead both more probable and more intriguing.
In Ballintubber abbey church ((MA089-058004-), at the E end of the chancel, within the N wall. 15th-century chest tomb inserted within a niche with a restored rounded arch. It is unknown which abbot of the community of Augustinian canons was buried there, though we know the names of a number of 15th-century abbots from sources. These include some colourful characters such as Thomas O’Ronain, who in 1462 was accused of malversation [corrupt use] of the property and revenues of the abbey (Twemlow 1921, 459), or Edmund de Stanton, who possessed ‘private property (…) does not reside in the said monastery, has received a certain man as a canon for a money payment (…) and, being unlearned, does not pray nor celebrate’ (Twemlow 1955, 92). The front of the tomb is comprised of two panels decorated with carvings of ogee-headed canopies framed by pinnacles. Each ogee is decorated with trefoil tracery, with a stylised flower or vine-leaf carved in its centre. The pinnacles terminate into a stylised flower or vine-leaf, and at the apex of each ogee-head are more stylised foliage. Each panel consists of two canopies, with two half-canopies on either side.
Compiled by Anne-Julie Lafaye
Date of upload: 09 January 2022
15th-century chest tomb; significant as a funerary monument within the historic context of Ballintubber Abbey, likely associated with a Cistercian abbot, though the specific individual remains unidentified.
The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.
- What survives
- Recorded monument
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