The slab commemorates James Kirwan, who died on the 27th of September 1693, and Monica Kirwan, identified as his wife, though her name trails off at the end with a question mark where the mason's lettering has become unclear or damaged. The stone was not cut until 1706, more than a decade after James's recorded death, which raises quiet questions about the gap and about Monica herself, whose date of death goes unrecorded.

The inscription opens with the initials IHS and the name Maria, a conventional invocation combining a Christogram, the first three letters of Jesus's name in Greek, with a dedication to the Virgin. This kind of formula was common on Irish Catholic memorial stones of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, a period when such inscriptions were often in Latin or a mixture of Latin and English. The use of "Anno Dni" for Anno Domini and the spelling "dyed" for died are characteristic of the period. The Kirwan name has deep roots in Connacht; it was one of the Tribes of Galway, the fourteen merchant families who dominated the town for centuries. Whether this particular James and Monica were connected to that lineage or simply shared a widespread surname in the region is not recorded on the stone itself.

The location adds another layer of interest. Holy wells in Ireland were sites of popular devotion long before and long after the Reformation, often associated with local saints and visited for healing or blessing. Incorporating a graveslab into the enclosing wall of such a well is not common, and it gives this particular memorial an unusual double function, marking both a family's grief and a sacred boundary at the same time.