What is recorded here

Oliver Plunkett and Elizabeth Dillon lie beneath a broad stone slab in a Meath graveyard, their names preserved in Latin while two shields display the symbols of the Passion. Christopher Plunkett and Ann Reli made the tomb after both deaths, shaping private grief into a permanent marker for the church. The stones still rest at the centre of the grave, waiting for people to read the names and imagine the family who loved them enough to carve them.

An altar tomb of Oliver Plunkett (d. 1581) and his wife Elizabeth Dillon (d. 1595) consisting of the top slab (dims 2.05m x 1.3m; T 0.15m) with a Latin inscription and the S side-slab (L 1.88m; H 0.69m) with three heraldic shields is in the centre of the graveyard. The most westerly shield has the arms of Plunkett and Dillon, and the other two shields have the symbols of the Passion (ibid. vol. 2, 322). According to Cogan (1862-70, vol. 2, 322) the inscription reads: “Hic jacet corpus venerabilis viri Oliveri Plunkett generosi quondam huius Ecclesiae verus et indubitabilis Patronus quie huius mortalitatis diem clonavit extremum 5 die Junii et sepultus 7 eiusdem 1581, et Elizabeth Dillon eius uxoris quae obiit 11 die Septembris 1595. Nos Christopherus Plunkett filius et haeres praedicti Oliveri et Ann Reli filia dni et militis O’Reli hunc tumultum fieri fecimus.” According to Moore and Kenny( 1975, 27) the translation reads: “Here lies the body of the venerable man Oliver Plunkett, Gentleman, formerly the true and undoubted patron of this church, who closed his last day of this mortality on the 5th day of June and was interred the 7th of the same in the year 1581 and of Elizabeth Dillon his wife who died the 11th day of September 1595. We Christopher Plunkett, son and heir of the aforesaid Oliver and Ann Reli, daughter of the Lord and soldier O’Reli has caused this tomb to be made. “ See the attached image. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 3 June, 2014

Chest tomb, late 16th century. Signifies the burial of Oliver Plunkett and his wife Elizabeth Dillon, reflecting early modern funerary practices and local gentry status.

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