It is small, measuring roughly 36 centimetres in height and 48 centimetres across, and what remains is a fragment of a pietà, the devotional subject known in the 15th century as 'Our Lady's Pity'. The carving shows the body of Christ lying across the knees of the Virgin, his arms crossed at the wrists, his right arm held at the elbow by Our Lady's left hand. That such a delicate composition survives at all, even partially, is quietly remarkable.

The fragment is thought to have originally formed part of the Royal tomb, an elaborate funerary monument associated with the McMahon family within the friary. Free-standing sculpture in the round, where a figure is carved to be viewed from multiple angles rather than set flush against a wall or architectural surface, was a technically demanding form, and very little of it from medieval Ireland has come through the intervening centuries intact. The choice of limestone was typical of Clare's medieval craftsmen, who had good local stone to hand, and the quality of the surviving detail suggests a workshop of some sophistication. Scholars including John Hunt and Peter Harbison have drawn attention to its significance within the broader context of Irish medieval art.