The O’Callaghan Mausoleum, located in the Shanrahan graveyard outside Clogheen, County Tipperary. This was erected in 1742 to commemorate Cornelius O’Callaghan, member of an ancient Irish family who had converted to the Established church and thereafter enjoyed a successful career as a lawyer and Member of Parliament for the Borough of Fethard in the same county. The barrel-vaulted interior of this rather plain gable-ended building contains a fine monument to O’Callaghan, ancestor of the Viscount Lismore who in 1810 would commission John Nash to design Shanbally Castle nearby. (Alas, the castle was shamefully demolished in the late 1950s, the remains being blown up in 1960 so that the cut stone could be used for road building). Occupying much of the end wall, this monument was carved by the Dublin sculptor David Sheehan and depicts the deceased above a Latin inscription and beneath a pediment that supports reclining putti on either side of an urn. Unfortunately the mausoleum now acts as little more than a garden shed for lawn mowers and the other equipment: hardly the most respectful way to treat this historic building, or the man it commemorates.
Disgraceful that it should be used in this way, a lack of respect. Please that the Mausoleum at Drumacoo Abbey, Co Galway where the St George’s are buried now has a large padlock on the door.
Sadly, this sort of disrespect is widespread. FAS workers used to use a mausoleum in our local graveyard as their lunch room, despite the open coffins stacked up the walls. Before we had it locked, there were empty bottles, pizza cartons etc. littering the floor.
Dismal treatment of a lovely mausoleum and monument. Sadly, one of the carved marble drapes on the monument has disappeared.
I never knew about this monument or vault. I wonder who is responsible for the maintenance and management now. If it’s Tipperary Co Co it is not surprising. CommunityCouncil or C of I parish ?
The problem with most Musalea….
[…] the rather sad spectacle of the O’Callaghan Mausoleum shown here last week (see Shabby Treatment « The Irish Aesthete) here is another building associated with the same family: a former shooting lodge at Glengarra, […]