In the corner of the Old Church in Templemore is this faded
graveslab. I've been to the graveyard within the town park a few times before
and took no notice of it. However I recently read William Hayes's paper on it
in Tipperary Historical Journal.
The graveslab dates to 1632 (making it the oldest gravestone
with a date in the graveyard) and around the sides of the slab is the following
in "black letter" / "gothic letter";
"JACET RD : PATER D : EDMUNDUS DULLANY RECTOR BEATA
MARIA DE TAMPLEMORE ET PRIOR COMMENDATORIUS INSULAE
.... FIERI FECIT AO 1632: CUIOS ATA PRORENE= “xs
[Here] lies Rev Father D Edmund Dullany, Rector of St Mary's
of Templemore, and Prior in Commendam of the Island . . . who had (me) made in
the year 1632: on whose soul may [the Lord] have mercy" - (TIPPERARY
HISTORICAL JOURNAL 1993, 186)
The paper suggests that he may have been the Prior of
Monaincha outside Roscrea. There are two other Dullany tombs in Loughmore and
they may have been connected, possibly being the same or close family. So this
would suggest they must have been a family of social standing at the time.
The carvings on the tomb are very worn now and I have tried
to draw back in roughly what was there. I think I may not have lasted long in
my stone-masons apprenticeship with this attempt!
The foliated cross (draw in) is actually pretty much
illegible on site. This motif however is quite frequently used on higher-status
graveslabs in this region around the time. There are other examples at
Knockainey in Co. Limerick, Inishlounagh outside Clonmel and St. Canice's
Cathedral in Kilkenny off the top of my head.
The base of the cross and the skull and cross-bones can be
made out on site though.
The name Dullany is an "early anglicised form of O
Dubshlaine, the later and modern version of which is Delany, a Sept which was
formerly associated with the Upperwoods regions of Co. Laois."
