2011:563 - . SS PETER AND PAUL’S CHURCH, GLADSTONE STREET, CLONMEL, Tipperary

Drainage works at SS Peter and Paul’s Church, Gladstone Street, Clonmel, were part of a restoration and upgrading programme being undertaken on the parish church. The site lies within the Zone of Archaeological Potential of the medieval town of Clonmel (TS083-019).

The first church on the site was begun in 1813. This building was subsequently enlarged but was eventually removed by the construction of the present church between 1880 and 1934. The final element of this building was the construction of the campanile, begun in 1926.

Two areas are marked as ‘graveyard’ on the 1905–6 OS 25in. map on the eastern side of the church. The northern one of these is still present; the southern one was probably removed when the tower of the present church was erected in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Gravestones and monuments that were likely to be associated with this graveyard were relocated to the south-western and western sides of the church grounds. It was not known whether human remains associated with these monuments were reinterred adjacent to the memorials.

The proposed route of the drains would cross the site of the southern graveyard as depicted on the 1905–6 OS map. Monitoring of the works revealed large amounts of rubble related to the demolition of the old steeple and the erection of the new tower. A cellar was also located in the south-eastern corner of the church grounds. This belongs to a building shown on the first-edition OS 6in. map of 1841.

A burial vault belonging to the Byrne family was built into the north-western corner of the cellar. The vault is located immediately adjacent to the south-eastern corner of the tower. The last interment in the vault was in 1889. A large monument that formerly stood over the vault was relocated south-west of the church in the late 1920s or early 1930s. This was the most elaborate such monument in the church grounds. The man responsible for its erection was William Byrne of Glenconnor, a prominent local entrepreneur. He eventually became the longest-serving member of the corporation in the 19th century, serving as mayor in 1852.

Photographic evidence shows the monument present in the early part of the 20th century. The roots of a nearby tree had displaced two stones in the vault roof and it was through the resulting small opening that the interior could be photographed. The steps of the entrance are in the eastern side.

The foul and water pipes that would have cut through the site of the vault were rerouted around it, and its location is marked on the new paved surface laid around the church.

A thick deposit of brown sandy silt found north of the cellar produced the majority of the ceramic finds, mostly consisting of pottery types dating from the mid-17th to the late 18th century.

No human remains were found during the monitoring. Apart from the vault, nothing was found to indicate the presence of previous burials on the site

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