Saving Thurles, County Tipperary History For Future Generations.

With Tipperary named by Lonely Planet as one of the world’s top places to visit in 2026, the county’s lesser-known heritage sites deserve renewed attention and care. An example of same should include a small, enclosed burial ground, where a scattering of largely forgotten eighteenth and nineteenth century headstones still survives at the edge of Thurles town.

St Bridgid’s graveyard (Eircode E41 AC91), the remnant of a former medieval parish church site, lies just west of Ardán Bhríde (Bridgid’s Terrace), directly opposite Thurles train station and running parallel to what was once named Garryvicleheen Road, now better known as Abbey Road.

What makes this modest graveyard particularly significant, however, is a limestone pillar beside the entrance to this enclosure, where architectural fragments and carved stones, wisely salvaged from the lost church, have been gathered and mounted for safekeeping.

Ironically, what was rescued from demolition and dispersal, now faces a different threat: open exposure to wind, rain and frost, which is steadily eroding the very details that give these stones their meaning.

A pillar of fragments and a warning in stone.
On the south face of the pillar, four carved stones are now just about visible.
At the top sits a rectangular corner stone bearing a carved seated cat, traditionally said to have once had two tails. Severe weathering has already softened key details, and the carving is now so worn that it may not survive intact for another generation. The cat’s face is described as V-shaped, with what appears to be a mouse held in its jaws. Locally, the workmanship has been associated with the trademark craft of An Gobán Saor (Gobban the Builder),the legendary seventh-century master mason, though the cat itself appears stylistically later, likely of eighteenth or nineteenth-century date.

To the right of the cat is a square stone depicting a lion, set within a circular frame. Same may also have British Royal Family connections.
A surviving window fragment, same a rare prominent, ornate window arch, with S-shaped curves (ogee) and decorative carved panels (spandrels) is yet another striking historic piece.
Finally, a rectangular limestone block carved with what appears to be a bald individual in a long robe and tunic, the clothing suggesting a cleric, (could it represent St Bridgid/ Bridget). The individual holds a cross in their right hand and a circular string of beads, most likely a paternoster♦, in their left. Beneath the figure, the names Patrick Kennedy and James Bulter have been crudely cut, later interventions that now form part of the stone’s layered story.

♦Paternoster: The paternoster was used to count prayers, typically 150 recitations of the “Our Father”. These beads often formed a loop, sometimes with a cross, reliquary (a container for holy relics), or pomander (latter worn or carried in a case as a protection against infection in times of pestilence or merely as a useful article to mask bad smells), as its end. This style eventually evolved into the modern rosary beads used today. Wearing the paternoster openly served as a devotional act, identifying the wearer as a Christian and displaying their religiosity. Depending on the materials used, serve as a display of wealth.

The west side of the pillar carries a single, highly recognisable carving, now unseen while protected by ivy: a limestone block showing a unicorn and lion rearing on their hind legs, (See immediately hereunder) beneath a crown, framed within a recess with a semi-circular head and straight sides.
This scene represents the Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom; Thurles being the ancestral Home of current reigning King Charles III.
The window head and the heraldic carving are considered older than the cat, with a provisional seventeenth-century date proposed for the lion and unicorn, (See picture hereunder).

A simple, yet urgent message: Please Protect What Remains!

The carvings at St Bridgid’s/Bridget’s gaveyard site are not museum pieces behind glass; they sit in the open air, exposed year-round. Weathering is now actively destroying this history, softening edges, flattening relief work, and erasing the very features that allow the stones to be read, dated and understood.

Once those details are gone, they are gone for good.
There is now a clear need for immediate, practical conservation at this site which must include protective covering to reduce direct rainfall and frost damage.

A practical way to safeguard this valuable heritage would be to enlist the services of Mr James Slattery, Slattery Monumental Works, Fianna Road, Thurles, Co. Tipperary (Tel: +353 86 2430213) to oversee the careful, professional removal of the carved stones and their placement in more secure, sheltered conditions.

It is suggested that the four limestone relief blocks, depicting (1) cat, (2) lion, and (3) unicorn and lion, be taken in hand and sympathetically installed within the Thurles Library area of ‘The Source’, in Cathedral Street, Thurles, where they could be properly interpreted and enjoyed by the public and visitors, in a controlled environment.

In addition, the limestone block carved with the (a) cleric figure shown in a long robe and tunic, and the (b) window fragment, could be respectfully mounted on a pedestal within the nearby Church of St Joseph & St Brigid, in Thurles, ensuring, again, both protection and an appropriate setting.

In both instances, these measures would not only secure all the fragments for future generations, but would also create safe, welcoming and attractive points of interest for visitors and history-minded tourists to Thurles.

While St Bridgid’s graveyard maybe a quiet corner of Thurles; these stones, gathered loosely on the top of that pillar, carry centuries of craft, belief, power, memory and identity. If they are left fully exposed, the weather will finish what time has already begun, erasing an important and irreplaceable chapter of Thurles history in plain sight.

This post has been sent to officials at Tipperary Co. Council, marked for the attention of Ms Sinead Carr, (sinead.carr@tipperarycoco.ie).

♦ Note: At no stage should an attempt to remove these historic fragments out of Thurles town, be undertaken, and any efforts to do so should be vehemently and firmly resisted.