What is recorded here

Half a chest tomb of William Murphy and Joanna Dunphy stands in Kilkenny's St Mary's church, its false-relief Latin and Murphy-Dunphy coats still sharp after four centuries. Buried in a transept wall for generations, it emerged in 2015 as a small corner of a larger vanished monument. The missing half may have been broken, discarded or lost when the church changed; the surviving panel continues to identify the family and resist forgetting.

At St Mary's parish church (KK019-026115-) in Kilkenny. A side panel of the early 17th-century chest tomb of William Murphy (d. 1622) and Joanna Dunphy (Carrigan 1905, Vol. 3, 94; Cockerham 2009, 356). Before it was moved to its present location in 2015 at W end of nave, it was set into the W wall of the S transept and only partially visible (Carrigan 1905, Vol. 3, 94). Comprises the corner panel (0.6m L x 0.4m Wth x 0.34m T) of a chest tomb built of fossiliferous limestone. It is decorated on two sides. The side-panel shows the inscription and the end-panel a cartouche. Both are framed by a raised bevelled border. The side-panel is inscribed in false relief Latin blackletter: INSIGNIA. WILLIELMI. MURPHY. CIVIS KILKENIAE ET UXORU[M] EIUS JOHANNAE DONFY ET MARGARETAE MURPHY. LEX. LUX. CRUX. DUX. Translation: Distinguished. William Murphy of the city of Kilkenny and his wife Joanna Dunphy and Margaret Murphy. The end-panel bears the coats of arms of Murphy and Dunphy which is flanked on the right by the initials W (at top) and J (at base) and on the left by the initials M (top), M (middle) and D (base) signifying William Murphy, Margaret Murphy and Joanna Dunphy. Compiled by: Cóilín Ó Drisceoil Date of upload: 9 January 2023

Early 17th-century chest tomb; significant as the burial site of William Murphy (d. 1622) and Joanna Dunphy, reflecting Jacobean funerary art in Ireland.

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