Its presence in Dublin is almost incidental, a matter of preservation and record rather than any grand civic purpose, and most visitors to the museum would pass through without knowing it was there at all.

The head originally came from Ballydawley church in County Sligo, a site catalogued in the archaeological record under the reference SL020-171001-. Stone heads of this kind are a recurring feature of early Irish ecclesiastical and prehistoric sites. They are generally carved from local stone and are thought to carry a range of possible functions, from apotropaic carvings meant to ward off harm, to representations connected with pre-Christian cult practice, to simple architectural or decorative elements on church buildings. Their precise meaning is rarely certain, and that ambiguity is part of what makes them interesting. The Ballydawley example came to the attention of archaeologist Martin Timoney, who noted its location in the National Museum in 1989, and the record was subsequently compiled by Paul Walsh and uploaded to the national archaeological database in June 2014.

The National Museum of Ireland's archaeology collection is based at Kildare Street in Dublin city centre, and access to the main galleries is free. Whether the Ballydawley head is currently on public display or held in storage is not clear from the available record; objects of this kind are sometimes accessible to researchers through the collections directly. Anyone with a particular interest in carved stone heads, or in the ecclesiastical archaeology of County Sligo more broadly, would be well advised to contact the museum in advance rather than arriving and expecting to find it on open display. The site at Ballydawley itself, back in Sligo, remains a separate point of reference for those interested in the original context of the find.