Architectural fragment, Patrickswell, Co. Tipperary

Co. Tipperary |

Ritual/Ceremonial

Architectural fragment, Patrickswell, Co. Tipperary

Tucked into the base of the east gable wall inside the church at Patrickswell, County Tipperary, a piece of carved stonework sits concreted into the fabric of the building, easy to overlook and yet quietly strange once noticed.

It is not a gravestone, not a foundation block, and not original to its present position. It is an architectural fragment, or rather several fragments, pressed into service as filler material, the kind of thing that happens when older dressed stone is repurposed during later building or repair work.

What survives includes the left side of a curving arch and its decorated spandrel, the roughly triangular space between the curve of an arch and the rectangular frame surrounding it. The carving on this spandrel is precise enough to read clearly: a central floral motif with three points radiating outward from it, finished with punched tooling on the outer face of the surround, a technique in which a pointed tool is used to create a stippled or textured surface on the stone. The combination suggests a piece of some ambition, part of a doorway or decorative opening that once belonged to a more elaborate structure. Where exactly it came from, and when it was removed and re-set in its current position beneath the east window embrasure, the recessed opening that frames the window above it, is not recorded.

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