School: Adair, Fermoy
- Location:
- Fermoy, Co. Cork
- Teacher: Caitlín, Bean Mhic Giolla Ríogh
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0378, Page 145
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- About 25 years ago an old font was discovered in a garden by Archdeacon Abbott. The bowl was filled with earth and a geranium was planted in it. A few years later, when the family was leaving Fermoy, it was given by the owner to be placed in the Parish Church where it is at present. Only the bowl is ancient, the pedestal evidently having been provided to make it useful for garden purposes. In all probability it is a survival (the only one known to exist) of the 13th Century Abbey of Fermoy. The Church of the Abbey was the Parish Church.
The late Robert Day of Cork, from the inspection of an imperfect photograph, considered that the grotesque carvings were consistent with a 13th to 14th century origin.
He suggested that probably it was not a font, but a mortar similar to one in his collection, which had belonged to the Preceptory of Knights Templars at Mourne Abbey near Mallow.
The dimensions are as follows:-
Height;- 10 ins. Diameter of bowl, 11 ins.
Depth of bowl - 6 ins Lip of bowl - 1 3/4 ins.
The font has four faces all different.
As the Monastery was the Parish Church it was necessary for all baptisms and marriages to take place there. So the unusual fact of there being a baptismal font in the Abbey is thus accounted for.(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Caitlín Bean Mhic Giolla Ríogh
- Gender
- Female
