This is a sheela-na-gig, a category of grotesque female figure found on churches, castles, and town walls across Ireland and Britain, whose precise purpose remains contested. Theories range from fertility symbols to apotropaic carvings meant to ward off evil. Whatever the original intention, the Thurles figure is a long way from its first home, and the story of how it ended up beside a garage opposite the GAA museum is quietly telling about how Irish towns have always repurposed their own past.

The Ordnance Survey Letters, compiled in the 1830s and later edited by Michael O'Flanagan, record that the western gate of Thurles was known locally as 'geata na Gcoileach', meaning the gate of the old woman. One of its stones bore a carving of an old woman, which the local name had preserved in memory even as the gate itself fell out of use. When that western gate was eventually demolished, the carved stone was not discarded. It was relocated to its current position in the wall, where it has remained. The figure itself is carved in relief on a limestone block measuring roughly half a metre in each direction. She has a pear-shaped head, almond-shaped recessed eyes, small nose, horizontal mouth, and pronounced jug-shaped ears. Her body is square, with sagging breasts, splayed legs, and arms reaching down. One lower leg is missing entirely on the right-hand side; the other ends in a sideways-turned foot with a clearly defined heel.

The carving sits on the back wall of Lyon's Tyre and Batteries Centre, directly opposite the GAA museum on the Slievenamon road. It is not behind glass or marked by an interpretive panel; it is simply there, mortared into a working building, looking out with its almond eyes at the traffic going past.