A sheela-na-gig is an explicitly sexual female carving, typically found on medieval churches and castles across Ireland and Britain, with the figure depicted squatting and displaying an exaggerated vulva. Their precise purpose remains debated, though theories range from fertility symbols to apotropaic figures meant to ward off evil. What is unusual about this particular example is how close to oblivion it came: the rough pebble-dash render applied to the gable covers part of the carving and may, at some point, have buried it entirely from view.

The figure was identified by O'Riordan in 1999 and is carved in relief on a triangular stone measuring roughly 0.47 metres on its side, 0.58 metres at the base, and 0.5 metres in height. Despite its worn facial features, the carving retains enough detail to distinguish pronounced jug-ears, a slight tilt of the head, splayed legs, and arms drawn downward to pull open the vulva. That such specifics survive at all, given the render creeping across the southeast corner of the stone, is quietly remarkable. The site also holds a second sheela-na-gig on the west face of the church tower, making Shanrahan one of a small number of ecclesiastical sites in Ireland where more than one of these figures can be found on the same building.