Font (present location), Fearmore, Co. Westmeath

Co. Westmeath |

Religious Objects

Font (present location), Fearmore, Co. Westmeath

A baptismal font that has quietly crossed the denominational divide sits inside St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, also known as the Church of the Immaculate Conception, at Fearmore in Coole Upper, County Westmeath.

Until recently it stood in the Church of Ireland church of St. Nicholas, but it has since been moved to its current home, a transfer that makes it something of a curiosity: a seventeenth-century limestone object now sheltered by a congregation of a different faith than the one that originally commissioned it.

The font is a freestanding octagonal vessel in limestone, and its craftsmanship repays close attention. The shaft, base, and basin are all carefully proportioned, with chamfered angles on the base worked so precisely that the square form subtly shifts towards an octagonal outline. Four carved heads project from the panels around the basin: three wear mitres, the tall liturgical headdress associated with bishops, and one appears to be a woman. Between the female head and one of the mitred figures, an inscription in Roman capitals reads, in translation, "Pray for me, Thomas Dovile, Vicar of Mayne," dated 1630. A second, less complete inscription on another panel also carries the date 1630, though its meaning has not been fully resolved. The shaft carries a decorative panel in low relief, described in 1968 by the scholar Helen Roe as a foliate design of leafy tendrils and a zig-zag band. Crudely carved into the base is the later date 1640, followed by the letters "OMEG V," the significance of which remains unclear. A description recorded in 1901 noted the same four heads and broadly the same inscriptions, though it read one date as 1636 rather than 1630, a small discrepancy that hints at how difficult such worn lettering can be to interpret with confidence.

The font is now inside the church at Fearmore, where it can be seen in person. For those unable to visit, a three-dimensional digital model of the object is available online at skfb.ly/oF7Oz, which gives a useful sense of its proportions and the texture of the carved detail.

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