Wall monument, Fethard, Co. Tipperary

Co. Tipperary |

Religious Objects

Wall monument, Fethard, Co. Tipperary

Set into the southern wall of the nave of Fethard's Augustinian abbey, a limestone slab carries an inscription that was already looking back across a century of upheaval when it was carved.

Dated to the last day of February 1635, the monument measures 1.56 metres long and 0.74 metres high, its Latin text cut in Black Letter script within a sunken panel, and it speaks with the particular formality of a family determined to fix their name in stone at a moment when such fixity was far from guaranteed.

The inscription commemorates Richard Wale of Rathkenny, described as a gentleman, and his wife Catherine, born Carran, daughter of Malachy Carran of Mobarnan. The monument was commissioned by the couple themselves, intended to serve not only as their memorial but as one for their male offspring, their wider descendants, and their parents. A heraldic shield occupies the right-hand portion of the slab, divided between the two families. On the dexter side, the Wale or Wall arms show a lion passant gardant in chief with three crosses patée beneath; on the sinister, the Carran arms display three lions passant. The shield itself is straight-sided with a strongly ogival, pointed base, a form typical of the period. Beneath each half of the shield, the initials R.W. and C.C. quietly anchor the two identities. The carving carries one notable curiosity: on the Carran side, the sculptor appears to have made an error, incorporating the family crest, a swan with its crest-wreath, into the upper portion of the heraldic field itself rather than positioning it correctly above the shield. Whether this was a misunderstanding of the commission or a slip in the workshop is not recorded, but it has survived for nearly four centuries as a small, silent mistake in an otherwise carefully composed piece of commemorative work.

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