Both belong to the seventeenth century, a time when the upheavals of rebellion, Cromwellian conquest, and plantation were reshaping landownership, faith, and the very texture of local communities across the country.

One slab commemorates Richard Treswell, who died in 1672, and is recorded in the Sites and Monuments Record under the reference DU014-066015. The other is associated with the Ryves family and dates from 1647, placing it in the middle of the Confederate Ireland period, when the island was caught between royalist, parliamentarian, and Catholic Confederate forces. Graveslabs of this kind, flat carved stones set into or against church fabric, were a common way for gentry and merchant families to mark their dead with something more permanent than a wooden marker, and more affordable than a raised tomb. The inscriptions and heraldic details carved into them can sometimes offer the only surviving record of a family's local presence. The notes for this site were compiled by Geraldine Stout and uploaded in August 2011, as part of a broader effort to document such overlooked monuments.

Finglas, now absorbed into the northern suburbs of Dublin, retains the outline of its older ecclesiastical core, and the chancel where these slabs sit is within that historic fabric. Visitors should look carefully at the south-east corner, where the slabs are positioned; lighting inside old church ruins can be uneven, and the carved surfaces are easier to read on overcast days when there is no harsh glare. If the lettering or decorative elements are worn, running a careful eye along the stone at an oblique angle often helps pick out the detail. There is no particular season that makes the site inaccessible, but growth of vegetation in summer can sometimes obscure ground-level features around ruins, so earlier in the year tends to reward closer inspection.