It was an unsettling find, and the circumstances made it more so: the body had been interred with quicklime, a material historically associated with the rapid decomposition of remains, sometimes used in mass burials during epidemics and sometimes, more deliberately, in the concealment of a death.

The ground beneath the construction site was not unfamiliar with confinement. It had previously held the old Bridewell, the local gaol of New Ross. A bridewell was a common term in Ireland and Britain for a small local lock-up or house of correction, named originally after Bridewell Palace in London, which was converted to a prison in the sixteenth century. The connection between the site's history as a place of detention and the discovery of a body buried in lime naturally invited questions. However, because the manner and position of the burial suggested the remains were relatively modern rather than archaeological in date, no formal investigation was carried out, and the remains were not taken into any collection. The Garda report recorded what had been found, and there the matter appears to have rested.