Altar tombs of this kind were prestigious commissions, designed to be seen during the Mass rather than simply to mark a burial plot, and placing one inside the chancel, the liturgically privileged eastern end of a church, signalled considerable wealth and influence. What makes this particular monument linger in the mind is the combination of devotional imagery and dynastic statement carved across its surfaces, compressed into a relatively small space of stone.

The tomb dates to 1629, a fact confirmed by a Latin inscription in raised Roman script across its top. The front panels carry symbols of the Passion of Christ, the objects associated with the crucifixion, a common devotional motif in Counter-Reformation funerary art intended to link the deceased with Christ's suffering and redemption. Above the altar, a plaque bears the O'Kennedy coat of arms alongside the Latin motto Dominus pars haereditatis meae, meaning "the Lord is the portion of my inheritance", a phrase drawn from the Psalms and one that folds together spiritual aspiration and the language of inheritance in a way that suited a family keen to announce both piety and lineage. The friary into which this monument is set was founded in the thirteenth century, predating the tomb by roughly four hundred years, which means the O'Kennedys were inserting their memorial into an already ancient and sacred structure.