It is easy to miss, embedded as it is in the fabric of a post-1700 church, but the carving itself is considerably older than the wall it now occupies. The face has oval-shaped eyes, a long angular nose, and large protruding ears; a style of stone carving with medieval roots, when such heads appeared on ecclesiastical buildings across Ireland, their precise function still debated by scholars.

The head almost certainly did not begin its life where it now sits. According to research compiled by Caimin O'Brien, it was probably removed from the ruins of a medieval church that stood to the north of the later building, a site recorded in the archaeological record. When the Church of Ireland church was constructed or modified in the post-medieval period, someone incorporated the carved head into the new west gable, a fairly common practice in Irish ecclesiastical architecture, where older worked stone was reused rather than discarded. It is a small act of material continuity, though whether the people who placed it there appreciated its age, or simply found it a useful piece of dressed stone, is impossible to say.

The church at Glebe is not a well-signposted destination, and the head itself requires a close look at the exterior stonework rather than any formal interior visit. The west wall is the one to examine, working your eye along the masonry towards the south-west corner. Rural Limerick churchyards of this type are often accessible during daylight hours, but it is worth bearing in mind that the surrounding landscape can be muddy underfoot after wet weather, which in this part of Ireland is not a rare condition. The carving rewards patient attention; once you have found the face among the cut stone, the oval eyes and the outsize ears have a quality of quiet alertness, as though the head has been watching the field opposite for several centuries and sees no reason to stop now.