Tomb

Situated on flat ground in the SE sector of the town of Nenagh with a thirteenth-century castle (TN020-0370001) to the NW and a church site (TN020-037007) to the S. A Franciscan friary possibly founded around the year 1250 by Donogh O'Kennedy, bishop of Killaloe, who died in 1252 (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 256-7). Nenagh friary was the chief house of the Irish friars and a principal house of one of the five subdivisions of the Franciscans in Ireland (Gleeson 1943a, 157). A provincial synod of the order was held in Nenagh on the feast of St Francis in 1344 (ibid., 160). The friary was destroyed and the monks driven out during the reign of Queen Elizabeth (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 257). The friary became observant in 1632 and was suppressed during the Cromwellian period (Gleeson 1915, vol. 1, 150). The OS Letters (ibid., 101) describe 'three fragments of a monumental stone, having raised on it the figure of a warrior in armour…composed of limestone' which was located near the NE inner corner. This tombstone is no longer visible inside the Franciscan Friary (TN020-037002). Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien. Date of upload: 22 September 2008

Effigial tomb, medieval period (13th–16th century), associated with a Franciscan friary and local ecclesiastical sites. Its presence indicates the area's historical role as a religious and burial centre in medieval Ireland.