The two stone figures lying side by side have been displaced once already, and the quiet of the porch feels less like a resting place than a holding pattern, a centuries-old pause between one church and the next.

The tomb is known as the Purcell double tomb, dated to somewhere between 1500 and 1520, and it began its existence in the church of St Mary del Dam, a medieval Dublin parish that has long since vanished. At some point in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century it was moved to St Werburgh's, where it has remained. Effigial tombs of this period typically show the deceased in their most socially legible form, and this one is no exception. The male figure is carved in full plate armour of late Gothic type, the interlocking plates rendered with close attention, while the female wears a pleated gown drawn in at the waist by a belt decorated with rosettes. What makes the tomb unusually rich, however, is the carved programme across its three side panels. The east end shows an archbishop, an enthroned Madonna and Child, an abbess, and an ecclesiastic. The north panel carries figures including Apollonia, the Holy Trinity, St John the Baptist, St John, and St Paul, alongside four figures who remain unidentified. The west panel depicts an archbishop, St Francis, a damaged recess where a figure once was, St James, and St Peter. The whole ensemble was catalogued by the art historian John Hunt in 1974, and his account remains the primary scholarly record.

St Werburgh's stands on Werburgh Street, just off Christchurch Place, and is one of the older Anglican churches in the city, though the current building dates largely from the eighteenth century. The church is not always open to casual visitors, so it is worth checking opening times in advance or attending one of the occasional heritage access events that the building hosts. The tomb itself is in the porch rather than the nave, which means that on days when the church is open it may be viewable without entering the main body of the building. The side panels reward close inspection; the carving is fine-grained, and the damaged recess on the west face is a small, nagging reminder of how much of this kind of work has been lost.