Graveslab, Athenry, Co. Galway

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Tombs & Memorials

Graveslab, Athenry, Co. Galway

On the floor of a medieval church in Athenry, Co. Galway, there may still lie a broken graveslab that nobody can find.

The slab was last reliably documented in scholarly literature in the early twentieth century, and by the time anyone went looking for it again in 2018, it had simply vanished from view, or perhaps from existence.

The stone was first recorded in detail by R.A.S. Macalister in 1913, who described it as a flat, coffin-shaped slab that had fractured into two pieces, with the pieces misplaced relative to one another. Across both fragments, a short funerary inscription had been carved: one piece bore the words PRAY FOR, along with the date 1686, and the other carried the phrase SOVLE OF BRYN VAGH, the final letters of the surname truncated, most likely completing the name Vaughan. The slab had been positioned centrally in the nave of the church, the main congregational space running the length of the building, which would have made it a prominent feature underfoot for anyone attending services. Floor slabs of this kind were a common form of commemoration for families of means in post-medieval Ireland, essentially marking a burial below or honouring a deceased person associated with the parish. When an inspection was carried out in October 2018, however, the slab could not be located at all. Whether it had been moved, buried beneath later flooring, or lost to damage in the intervening century is not recorded.

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Pete F
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