Once again nobody was in the new farmhouse, so I wandered over the the carriage house where the two Sheela-na-Gigs are set into an end wall. It appears that the originals have been taken down and duplicates put up in their place.
One is very small and almost like a leaping baby doing the splits. Both hand come over the belly to indicate between the legs, but there does not appear to be a vulva.
The second is extremely nice (well the copy is) and carved in false relief on what appears to have been a keystone from an arch. She is standing with her feet turned outwards and her knees apart. The hands pass in front of the belly to indicate the notchlike vulva. She has ribs on both sides and breasts below her armpits. The head is really weird! It is like a rugby ball with huge lug ears.
If these are copies then whoever did them did a very, very good job. If they have simply been cleaned then she's scrubbed up well!
Footnote 30/08/04: After sitting for a long time comparing these with older images it does look as though these are the originals that have been cleaned. There is a small vulva on the little figure. I have also noted that the larger figure does not fit into the keystone properly. It is not symmetrical, nor is the one side of the edge complete. I do not think that this was originally carved to be a keystone, but was re-used from a different location.
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A Random Selection of Nearby Monuments
 Killinaboy (Co. Clare) |  St. Munna's Church (Co. Westmeath) |  Garry Castle (Co. Offaly) |
 Cloghan Castle (Co. Roscommon) |  Abbeylara (Co. Longford) |  Fethard Wall (Co. Tipperary) |
