Graveslab, St. Patricksrock, Co. Tipperary

Co. Tipperary |

Tombs & Memorials

Graveslab, St. Patricksrock, Co. Tipperary

Most visitors to the Rock of Cashel crane their necks upward at the round tower and the carved capitals of the cathedral, but the floor holds its own quiet mysteries.

Lying in the choir is a medieval graveslab, just under two metres long, its upper surface worn, cracked, and broken by centuries of exposure. It is not immediately legible, which is part of what makes it interesting. Cut into the stone is a seven-armed segmental fleur-de-lis cross, a form in which the cross-arms terminate in stylised petal shapes, carved in relief with a knop, a small rounded protrusion, sitting at the junction of the cross-head and shaft. The shaft itself rises from a pillar-base form, and a floral motif appears on each side of the shaft, the two differing slightly from one another, as if the mason worked freehand rather than from a strict template.

Running around the edge of the slab and continuing into the decorative panel on the right-hand side is a Latin inscription in Black Letter script, the dense angular lettering common to medieval ecclesiastical stonework. The text is fragmentary and partially illegible, but enough survives to identify the person commemorated. As translated from the Latin, it reads: "Here lies Johannes Conran, formerly a cleric, who died on a certain day, A.D., on whose soul may God have mercy. Amen." The date of death has been lost to damage, and the formula "formerly a cleric" suggests Conran may have held clerical office at some point before his death, though the precise nature of his role is not recoverable from what remains. A separate set of inscriptions, noted as illegible, was also observed cut lengthways on either side of the cross-shaft, adding a further layer of text that time has rendered unreadable.

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