That it exists at all is quietly remarkable; commemorative slabs of this kind, flat carved stones set into floors or walls to mark the dead, were vulnerable to centuries of foot traffic, reuse, and neglect, yet this one came through in reasonable shape.

The slab sits within the church of St Mary in Gowran, a substantial 13th-century structure that has accumulated layers of use and alteration across the centuries. The memorial was recorded by Loeber in 1981, who identified it as commemorating John and Joseph Kelly and dated it to 1678, placing it well into the post-Reformation period when such Catholic commemorative objects occupied an uncertain social and legal position. The church itself is accompanied by a 17th-century mortuary chapel, a small separate structure built against the southern exterior wall of the nave, and it is here that the Kelly slab may currently be housed alongside other architectural fragments gathered from the site over the years.