What makes this find particularly arresting is a cluster of five burials laid down at the same moment, aligned north to south rather than the conventional east to west, and accompanied by military buttons bearing the insignia of the 17th Royal Regiment of the Meath Militia. That regiment was stationed in Kilkenny for a narrow window in the summer of 1798, between the 28th of July and the 8th of August, a period that coincided with the violent aftermath of the United Irishmen's rebellion.

The ground beneath the courthouse carries centuries of layered use. In the 13th century, William le Gros constructed a castle on this site, which later became known as Grace's Castle. By 1566 it had been surrendered to the Crown and repurposed as a county gaol, serving that function for over two hundred years before being rebuilt as a courthouse around 1794. Elements of the earlier castle structure are thought to be incorporated into the present 18th-century building. The excavation, carried out by archaeologist Maedbh Saunderson, also revealed the remnants of medieval burgage plots, the long, narrow urban land divisions typical of Irish and English towns from the Norman period, along with boundary ditches, drainage features, pits, and cesspits, some of them timber-lined. The burials themselves were provisionally dated to the 18th and 19th centuries, placing them firmly within the jail's operational period. Saunderson's team fully excavated all exposed burials, but the surrounding ground at the south-east and south-west of the site is believed to contain further remains.