It is a fragment, roughly a metre long and tapering from about forty-five centimetres wide at the top down to thirty, and what makes it quietly arresting is the inscription carved along its right-hand edge. The letters are Lombardic, a rounded, decorative script common on medieval funerary stonework, and they begin with an equal-armed cross whose terminals flare outward. What follows is a Latin epitaph, standard enough in form but uncertain in detail: HIC JACET FRATER THOMAS, meaning "Here lies Brother Thomas." Or possibly not quite that.

The difficulty lies in the second word of the name. The title before "Thomas" is damaged and the reading is contested. The first letter could be an "F", suggesting "Frater", the Latin for "Brother", which would identify the deceased as a member of the Augustinian community that once occupied this sprawling priory on the River Suir. Athassel, founded in the late twelfth century, was among the largest Augustinian houses in medieval Ireland, and its chancel floor would have served as a burial place for significant members of the community. But the initial letter may instead be an "M", in which case the word could be "Magister", meaning "Master", a title that in a medieval ecclesiastical context often indicated advanced learning or a particular administrative role. The slab itself has a chamfer running along one edge only, a small bevelled border that was likely a deliberate design choice rather than damage, and the inscription survives in reasonably legible condition despite some weathering to the stone face.

Athassel's ruins are extensive and atmospheric, and the chancel where the slab rests is accessible to visitors who make their way across the fields from the road near Golden village. The slab sits in situ against the east gable, which means it can be viewed close up, though the weathering makes careful looking worthwhile. The unresolved question of whether Thomas was a humble friar or a learned master may never be answered, but the ambiguity is itself a small window into how medieval identity and status were recorded, and sometimes lost, in stone.