The monument is a cinquefoil arch, meaning an arch divided into five rounded lobes, rising from octagonal piers and topped with a lofty, crocketed hood that terminates in an elaborate finial. On either side, a corbel carved with a small angel holding a blank shield supports a richly decorated buttress. Traces of dark-red and blue-grey paint survive on the carvings, a reminder that medieval stonework was rarely left in the bare grey state we tend to associate with it today.

The monument was erected around the middle of the fifteenth century by Edmund, son of Geoffry Galwey, and Margaret, daughter of Richard Bultingfort, in memory of their respective relatives. Three armorial tablets are set into the structure, each labelled in abbreviated Latin: the arms of Richard Bultingfort in the tympanum above the recess, those of Geoffry Galwey to the left, and those of Edmund Galwey to the right. The damaged inscription on the back wall records both men. Antiquary T. J. Westropp, writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland in 1898, established that Geoffry Galwey died between the 1st and 5th of January 1445, his inventory having been taken on the 5th and his will proved seven days later. Richard Bultingfort's will, dated the day after the Feast of St. Senan in 1405, was proved before Bishop Cornelius O'Dea on 1st August 1406. A later tablet added above the niche, bearing the chained cat crest of the De Burghos and a Latin address to the reader about the Galwey arms, complicates the visual arrangement further. The damaged inscription has traditionally been blamed on soldiers serving under Henry Ireton during the siege of Limerick in 1651, targeting the monument out of hostility toward Sir Geoffrey Galwey, who was mayor of the city in 1652. Westropp found this unconvincing, noting that the same soldiers apparently left the angel corbels and the crosses on the sedilia entirely untouched, and suggested instead that the heat from a memorial lamp hanging within the recess was the more likely cause.

St. Mary's Cathedral is open to visitors and sits on King's Island in the older part of the city. The south transept is accessible from the main body of the cathedral, and the monument is large enough to locate without difficulty once you are inside. It rewards close attention: the layering of heraldic tablets from different periods, the fragmentary Gothic lettering still legible in places, and the remnants of medieval pigment in the carved stonework all give a sense of how much information is compressed into a single recess of wall.