What is recorded here

You can still see the locks curling below his ears and the beard cut sharp across the chest. The limestone may have been pale when first shaped, but age has darkened the man and made his prayer look less like display and more like warning. He has sat through every storm that struck Kilkenny, every forgotten war and every child born after the church stopped belonging to the men who built it.

At St Mary's parish church (KK019-026115-) in Kilkenny. An effigy of a male dating from the second quarter of the 14th century (L 1.98m; Wth 0.53m; T 0.38m) made from fossiliferous limestone. Hunt describes it as, ‘a coffin-shaped slab with the figure of a man in a long gown to the ankles. He wears a shoulder-cape, the hood thrown back behind his head with its liripipe hanging down its right side almost to the elbow. The gown has short sleeves to the elbows with pendant lappets to mid-thigh. His hands are clasped together in prayer. His hair hangs in decorative locks curling below the ears and he has a beard. The head rests on a double cushion and his feet on a foliate socle. The date is second quarter of the fourteenth century’ (Hunt 1974, vol. 1, 197). Compiled by: Cóilín Ó Drisceoil Date of upload: 21 November 2022

Medieval effigial tomb, 14th century. It is significant as a rare example of medieval funerary sculpture in Kilkenny, reflecting the artistic and social practices of the period.

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