Small enough to hold in two hands, it is the kind of object that rewards a second glance, a fragment of medieval ambition that survived long after the wall around it gave way.

The head came from the east gable of St Brigid's church on Inis Cealtra, a monastic island off the Clare shore of Lough Derg with origins reaching back to the early medieval period. It is Romanesque in style, meaning it belongs to the tradition of rounded arches, decorative stonework, and animal motifs that spread across western Europe roughly between the eleventh and twelfth centuries, reaching Ireland in a distinctly local form. Carved animal heads were a common feature of Romanesque church decoration, appearing at corbels, capitals, and gable finials, sometimes purely ornamental, sometimes freighted with symbolic meaning that is now difficult to unpick. This one remained in place, presumably, until the gable itself collapsed, at which point it passed into the ground and out of sight. Excavations carried out between 1970 and 1980 brought it back to the surface, documented by de Paor in a 2013 publication, and it eventually made its way to the museum in Ennis.