It is modest in size but unusually precise in what it records: a pair of heater-shaped shields, the kind modelled on the triangular shield used in medieval tournaments, separated by an elaborate foliate carving. Each shield carries heraldic imagery rendered in careful detail, and together they appear to commemorate a specific marriage between two medieval families.

The dexter shield, the one on the right from the viewer's perspective, bears a chief indented, a horizontal band across the top with a zigzag lower edge, overlaid by a narrow diagonal stripe known as a bendlet, itself charged with three scallop shells. The sinister shield shows two lions passant, walking and in profile, with the lower one described as gardant, meaning its head is turned to face the viewer directly. The scholar Crotty, writing in 2012, identified these arms as indicating a union between James, the seventh Baron of Dunboyne by prescription, and his wife Mór, daughter of Donnchadh O'Brien. The Dunboyne title referred to here is the Butler family's claim to the Barony of Dunboyne in County Meath, held by prescription rather than formal royal grant, a distinction that carried its own complex legal and social weight in medieval Ireland. The O'Brien connection places the marriage within the broader web of Gaelic and Anglo-Norman alliances that shaped Munster's political landscape.

The plaque sits above an architectural threshold, literally and figuratively, marking the boundary between the main chancel and a chapel that once belonged to the family whose arms it displays. The foliate motif dividing the two shields is worth examining closely; it is not merely decorative but appears to have been carved with some care, suggesting the monument was commissioned rather than incidental.