Carrick-on-Bannow / Banú / Carrig-on-Bannow

A baptismal font in the old church at Bannow is noted in the 'Father Mike' story told in Hall (1829): "The curious font inside the church". The Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland (1846) reproduces some notes originaly taken by the 'Rev. Mr. Walsh' during his visit to Bannow in the summer of 1826, among which are some of the interior of the old ruined church and "a baptismal font of very antique sculpture in relief" [NB: was this the original font later moved to Carrick-on-Bannow St. Mary's? Lewis's 1837 Dictionary of Ireland appears to indicate however that "the ancient font was removed some years since to the R. C. chapel at Danescastle, where it is preserved with great care" [cited in www.libraryireland.com/Lewis/LewisB/94-BANNOW.php [accessed 28 February 2009]]. J.C. Tuomey, in a paper read at the Kilkenny Archaeological Society in 1850 on the description of the old church, noted: "Within the doorway of the nave, at the left hand-side as you enter, is to be seen a holy-water stone, peeping up from among the rubbish. Years ago another, and larger and more beautiful one, probably the font, was taken from this ruin, and placed in the chapel of Rathangan; but it was again restored to Bannow, though the influence of the late 'Counsellor' Carr, as he was popularly called, of Graigue, Bannow. The Roman Catholic clergyman of this parish had it since removed from the old church, and it, at present, is used as a font in the new chapel at Carrig, Bannow." There is an undated [ca. 1900?] pen-and-ink-wash drawing of this font by William Frazer of an original drawing by George V. Du Noyer, [PD 1975 TX 7 (64) ] in the Sketch books of Irish antiquities Collection in the National Library of Ireland [NB: the image is visible in http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000739582/HierarchyTree [accessed 16 December 2018] but not downloadable]. Described and illustrated in Pike (1989): this font, still in use, is probably made of sandstone but has a marble inset [i.e., in the inner well of the basin] with two rectangular divisions, and the drain in the smaller division; it is said to come from St. Mary's Medieval Church, Bannow Bay, built by the Normans 1188, and is elaborately decorated in fine carving on all four sides with interlocking ribbon festoons, forming a fleur-de-lis design on two of the faces of the bowl, while the other two faces have diagonally intersecting swords and fleur-de-lis [cf. Index entry for Inistiogue No. 2 for a similar motif]. Like the font at Fethard-on-Sea [cf. Index entry], the sides here have a triple scallop at the lower border on each face, but the band of ornamentation that delineates it is made of beaded-tape motif here. Noted and illustrated in CRSBI [www.crsbi.ac.uk/site/1095/] [accessed 16 June 2014]: "The design and decoration is very similar to the font at Fethard-on-Sea, and the font is evidently a product of the same workshop."