Tara

INFORMATION

FontID: 09258TAR
Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Patrick (C. of I.) [may have originated at the nunnery in nearby Lismullen]
Country Name: Republic of Ireland
Location: Meath / An Mhí, Leinster
Directions to Site: Tara is located on the N3 (Dunboyne-Navan), about 13 km SE of Navan
Font Location in Church: Reported ca. 1968 inside the Protestant church of St. Patrick, Tara
Century and Period: 12th - 16th century, Medieval
Described in Roe (1968: 128) as a much damaged medieval baptismal font now [i.e., ca. 1968] inside St. Patrick's (C. of I.) in Tara; this basin is described as "octagonal with chamfered under panels" and so badly battered that "neither the original height nor the thickness of the rim can be determined"; the inner well is reported as round, with narrowing sides towards the bottom, but there is no mention of a drain in Roe, who relates that "on one of the upper panels are some letters or initials roughly scratched in"; these, Roe suggests, appear to be an attempt at representing Christ's monogram, "IHS", the sort that has a raised cross between the vertical bars of the letter H. Roe (ibid.) further informs that, although "this vessel is said to have been brought to the church from the gardens at Lismullen", where there was a pre-Reformation convent of nuns, she does not find it "grounds for the association of this vessel with the nunnery and therefore its place of origin remains unknown".

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone
Number of Pieces: one
Font Shape: octagonal
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal
Rim Thickness: 17.6 cm*
Diameter (inside rim): 48.2 cm [42 cm at bottom of well]
Basin Upper Panel Dimensions: unknown (heigh) x 25.4 cm (wide)
Basin Lower Panel Dimensions: 24.2 cm (high) x 25.4 tapering to 14 cm (wide)
Notes on Measurements: Roe (1968: 128) *[does not correspond to the rim exactly but to the "thickness of the stone that is left]

INSCRIPTION

Inscription Language: Latin
Inscription Notes: Reported as an attempt at incising the monogram on the basin side [cf. infra]
Inscription Location: on one of the panels of the basin
Inscription Text: [IHS?]
Inscription Source: Roe (1968: 128)

REFERENCES

Roe, Helen M., Medieval Fonts of Meath, Longford, Ireland: Meath Archaeological and Historical Society, 1968