Graveslab, Kilboght, Co. Galway

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Tombs & Memorials

Graveslab, Kilboght, Co. Galway

Inside the old church at Kilboght, County Galway, a stone slab lies with a geometry that rewards slow looking.

It tapers from a width of 0.58 metres at the base to just 0.18 metres at the top, where the head rounds off rather than finishing in a sharp point. Carved in relief across its surface is an open lozenge, a diamond shape formed in raised stonework, and from it the arms and shaft of a cross descend to a stepped Calvary base, the tiered platform traditionally representing Golgotha. Within the lozenge, the monogram IHS appears, an abbreviation drawn from the Greek rendering of the name of Jesus that became one of the most common devotional motifs in post-Reformation Catholic stonework across Ireland and Europe.

The slab dates to the seventeenth century and is one of two from that period sheltered within the same church. What makes it particularly interesting to those who study early modern Irish funerary carving is a small Greek cross that springs from the horizontal bar of the letter H in the IHS monogram. This same detail appears on a graveslab at Lickmolassy, a site in a different part of County Galway, suggesting either a shared regional workshop tradition or a craftsman whose work travelled between communities. The slab itself measures 1.83 metres in length and varies in thickness between 0.1 and 0.4 metres, subtle variations that speak to the handwork involved in shaping the stone. It was brought to wider attention by Dr C. Cunniffe.

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