For much of the twentieth century it was classified as a sheela-na-gig, the term used for the explicit female exhibitionist carvings found on medieval Irish churches and castles, often interpreted as protective or apotropaic figures. Researcher Cherry reassessed it in 1992 and concluded it was instead a male exhibitionist figure, a distinction that matters both anatomically and in terms of how such carvings are understood within medieval stonework.

The first figure was found in 1932 by a Mr Wallace inside the old church at Burgesbeg, at the base of the wall of the only remaining gable. By 1939, Guest recorded that Wallace had also reported finding two figures lying outside the south wall of the Burgesbeg churchyard. The second figure is now held in a storeroom adjoining the cathedral at Clonmacnoise, the great monastic site on the River Shannon in County Offaly, while the first went on loan to the National Museum. The Clonmacnoise figure has been described by McMahon and Roberts as having bent legs, bulbous eyes, and clearly defined ribs. Weir offered a more precise anatomical reading, identifying a small protuberance below what is likely the anus and characterising it as a hesitant penis, a phrase that captures something of the ambiguity that caused the original misidentification.