It is easy to overlook, dwarfed by its surroundings and worn by centuries, but the fragment carries something quietly remarkable: a partial Latin inscription in black letter script, the dense Gothic lettering common to medieval stonework, that records a grant of indulgence from an Archbishop of Cashel to anyone who would say a Pater Noster and an Ave Maria.

The slab measures roughly 78 centimetres by 51 centimetres and is believed to be a fragment of an older graveslab, placed in its current position, probably as a repair, on the tomb of Pierce fitz Oge Butler. The inscription, as transcribed by Hunt in 1974, reads in part: AREPUS CASS' OMIB DICENTIB' PAR' NR & AVE, the opening letters lost, but enough survives to reconstruct the sense: an Archbishop of Cashel granting spiritual favour to those who pray. It is a compressed, practical piece of medieval devotion, the kind of text that was meant to encourage prayer at the tomb and, in doing so, benefit the soul of the deceased. Carrigan noted the slab as far back as 1903, and Rae examined it again in 1971, so its presence here has been known to scholars for well over a century without ever attracting much wider attention.

Kilcooly Abbey itself is a Cistercian foundation in County Tipperary, and the Butler tomb it houses is one of the more elaborate pieces of late medieval sculpture in the county. The graveslab fragment, tucked at the effigy's feet in the eastern recess of the chancel's north wall, rewards a close look, particularly for anyone who takes the time to crouch down and read what little remains of the archbishop's offer.