Architectural fragment, Fearann Na Cille, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Ritual/Ceremonial

Architectural fragment, Fearann Na Cille, Co. Kerry

Set into the wall of an ordinary house on Green Street in Dingle, a carved stone plaque depicts a large bird gripping a smaller one in its claw, while a third bird hovers above the scene.

Above the carving, the letter M and three dots are cut into the stone. It is easy to walk past without noticing. The plaque measures roughly 42 centimetres square, and the imagery, a predator, its prey, and a witness in flight, has the quality of a device or emblem rather than decoration for its own sake.

A short distance away, on the gable of a building known locally as Gifts, two further plaques survive from what appears to be the same period. One is circular, about 22 centimetres across, and carries an interlaced design of six loops in relief, the kind of knotwork geometry that persisted in Irish decorative carving well into the early modern period. The other is square, the same dimensions, and shows a pair of birds facing each other on a perch within a raised border. John Bradley's Urban Survey of Kerry, published in 1987, suggested that these plaques may date from the seventeenth century, a period of considerable rebuilding and consolidation in Irish towns, when carved stonework of this kind occasionally found its way into domestic architecture, whether as salvaged material from older structures or as fresh commissions by prosperous households. The bird imagery in particular, especially the motif of a large raptor clutching smaller prey, was used in heraldic and emblematic contexts across Europe during this era, though the precise significance of the M and three dots on the Green Street plaque remains unexplained.

The plaques are built into the fabric of working buildings on an active street, not set apart in any formal way. Anyone walking the west side of Green Street in Dingle can see the larger carving in situ, though knowing to look for it, and at what height, makes all the difference.

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