GA-STNL-0382

Record Date: 
29 September 2024
Graveyard: 
St Nicholas' Collegiate Church and Graveyard
Exact wording of epitaph: 

?[J]-ABS WILLIA —VILN • ET • MARGAR ET V • NIGVAINE • N [or V?]

Grave location
County: 
Galway
Latitude: 
53.27272663
Longitude: 
-9.0537133799738
Additional details
References: 
FitzGerald (1895-7), 464 gives the inscription as "MABUS* WILLIAM / / ILN-ET MARGAR / ETV NIGVA'NE V". Hardiman (1820), 252. "In this (sic.) aisle, on a black marble gravestone the following Irish names are legible Wilielmus O Duiln and Margaret U Niguane". Fleetwood Berry (1912 A), 12, opposite 12 and inside cover, gives three readings of the inscription all of them almost identical, viz "Jabus Willia[l]mus O'Duiln et Margaret U Niguaine". Fleetwood Berry (1912 B), 66 publishes the inscription as follows "Jabus Willielmus O'Duiln et Margaret U Niguaine." He also supplies the information that it was (by then) "On the wall close by"... to the Slingesby slab. See also ibid, plate opposite p. 56. Fleetwood Berry, (Ed. Higgins) (1989), 66. A new reading of the inscription is given and the ornament is briefly described. (See footnote). A tentative reconstruction as follows may be suggested " " ^" ‘JwY J«nr M]ABVS WILLIAM / - - [O’DjVILNET MARGARET V*NIGVAINE-V[or W] . Ni Guame or NigUaine may have been intended. The former seems more likely.
People commemorated: 
Surname: 
TO D'UITLN and NIGVAINE Tor GUAINE1
Notes: 

This stone is set in the East wall of the Lynch or Southern Transept. Only the top survives. It has been cut off losing much of the Ins. which occurs in low false relief around its border. The Ins., which is in Latin, is divided at various points by lozenge-shaped stops. The slab itself is covered (probably all over originally) with a Lattice-type piece of interlaced decoration. This interlaced pattern consists of double interlocked lines of wide bands meeting at right angles to each other. Lozenge-shaped voids are left in the background to the pattern of bands. The Ins. has been recorded by both Hardiman (1820) and Fleetwood Berry (1912). The upper left hand comer has been broken away and is restored in cement. A modem attempt to restore the Ins. in Inc'd. lines has lead to its misinterpretation.