9 O'Connell Street in Thurles is a small limestone plaque that raises more questions than it answers. Measuring roughly 24 by 31 centimetres, it is fragmentary, with the entire left-hand side missing, and what survives shows a heraldic shield divided chevronwise, decorated with fleur de lys motifs and an arrangement of two roses over three. Above the shield, the date reads "162?" — the final digit worn or broken away — and the letter "D" appears on the upper right side. It is the kind of object that could easily be walked past, yet it carries the compressed remnants of an identity, a date, and a household now difficult to name.

The plaque's origins are genuinely uncertain. A number of armorial plaques associated with the White family are known from the nearby medieval church of St. Mary's, but this piece does not match those others in scale or design. That mismatch has led to the suggestion that it did not originate in a church setting at all, but rather came from a domestic building, perhaps a townhouse or a substantial residence of the early seventeenth century. An armorial plaque of this kind would typically have been displayed on the exterior or interior of a private dwelling, marking the status and lineage of whoever commissioned it. The missing left half of the stone, the sinister side in heraldic terms, may well have carried further letters or decoration that would have made the identification straightforward. As it stands, the "D" and the partial date are the only firm textual clues remaining.