Drumconrath / Drumcondrath / Drumconra

Described in Cogan (1992 c1862, vol. II: 294) as a baptismal font serving as an ornament in the Rector's garden. Described in Roe (1968: 114) as a medieval baptismal font, "a well-made, substantial, flat-bottomed vessel with four wide and four narrow sides. All the panels are slightly chamfered inwards at the bottom. Sockets for the attachment of a cover are worked in two opposite panels. The basin is circular with almost vertical sides and a central drain." Roe (ibid.) remarks on the presence of "a small projection, like a little shelf, juts out from the rim of one of the narrow panels", but finds it "rather too small to have served as a stand for the cruets of holy oils" and resolves that "its purpose remains unexplained". Roe (ibid.) adds that, even though at the time of her own visit [i.e., ca. 1968] this font stood in the graveyard, it must be the same font reported about one hundred years earlier [ca, 1862] in the Rector's garden by Cogan [cf. supra], since "there seems to be no trace of any vessel other than this one in the vecinity". [NB: on-site notes: the font fragment has been mounted on a wall ledge outside the church and has a modern plaque that reads: Holy water stoup from old church on Loughbracken Hill" -- A transcribed note from "The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0712, Page 073" in the National Folklore Collection, UCD [https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/5009000/4975469/5112606] [accessed 19 July 2025] informs: "There is the remains of an old church on a hill at Loughbracken, it was surrounded by a graveyard. it is believed to have been knocked down by Cromwell by gunfire from Syddan. My grandfather told my father that the old wall of his garden , in Drumconrath village, was the ruins of a monastery. There is another old church in ruins in Drumbride graveyard, also a church on the Chapel Hill, Drumconrath, where a holy water font still remains,whilst at Loughbracken there is a broken baptismal font."]