Fore No. 1

Described and illustrated in Roe (1968: 8, 117-118 and pl. XLIV): medieval baptismal font located in the ruins of the Church of St. Fechin, in the northwest end, "an unusually shaped vessel formed as a large convex bowl on a massive rectangular columnar shaft, rising from a square chamfered base". Roe (ibid.) describes the odd bulges or ribs at 90-degree angles both on the basin sides and on the shaft of the base, and believes that the oval extensions or "bosses were once carved as human faces (those of the Four Evangelists?)", but admits that "the cruelly worn and deteriorated state of the stone makes it impossible to be sure", and includes this font among the plain ones in her book. Speculating on the possibility of the "bosses" being human heads, Roe (ibid.) suggests it could be "a work of the earlier 13th century, one of the earliest datable fonts of the Diocese of Meath", a date that corresponds approximately to the time when the original church was enlarged. Roe (ibid.) notes an interesting detail, that "the original lead lining of the drain still extends from bowl to gound", not a very common survival, especially in the case of the much abandoned Irish fonts. The entry for this church in Visions of the Past [https://visionsofthepastblog.com/2018/07/18/st-feichins-church-westmeath-ireland/] [accessed 25 July 2025] reports: "The font on the right as one enters the church dates from the 13th century."
A 3-D model of this font made by Archaeological Survey of Ireland may be seen in Sketchfab [https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/saint-feighins-church-baptismal-font-c0ae69e8cbae42bc92b227869602f203] [accessed 25 July 2025]; its caption reads: "12th-century baptismal font standing inside north-west corner of the nave, located at RC Chapel in 1864. Font (WM004-035021-) consists of a circular-shaped bowl measuring 0.94m high by 0.67m deep by 0.65m wide with central drainage hole. The rim of the bowl has 4 oval-shaped heads, possibly the 4 evangelists, projecting from the side of the bowl with mouldings running down from the chin of the heads onto the roll-mouldings on the 4 angles of the shaft ( H 0.28m x 0.28m Wth) which supports the tub-shaped basin. The shaft rises from a square-shaped base (0.4m x 0.4m) with a plain flat shaped plinth (0.62m x 0.62m x 0.05m) [...] Saint Feighin (Féichín), a 7th-century Irish saint, who died in 665 AD, was founder of the monastery at Fore also known as Féichín Fabair (Feighin’s Well), Co. Westmeath."


[cf. Index entry for Fore No. 2 for a doubtful vessel in the Church of St. Mary, also in Fore]