Marble and Stone Memorials - Sherin Family Memorial, St. Mary's Church of Ireland

This is one of the most elegant monuments in St Mary’s Church of Ireland cemetery with its classical design.  The square base contains panels for inscriptions and on top is an urn with a flame.  Unfortunately, the stonemason is not known.  While the monument may be signed it is not immediately visible.

The inscriptions on the panels read:

Erected by Catherine Sherin in memory of her Daughters Kate and Margaret Sherin. Kate who died January 17th 1839 aged 21 Years. Margaret Feb 10th 1839 aged 19 Years.

John Sherin died 5 March 1831 age 34.  Catherine died 11 January 1869 aged 77.

It is of interest to note that both daughters died in the same year.  Who were the Sherin family? Catherine had a business on Grattan Square as a draper/haberdasher/hatter in the building which was formerly the post office.  The earliest reference to her is in 1846 when she contributed £1 to the Dungarvan Famine Relief fund.  In 1849 the Dungarvan Union purchased clothing from her at a cost of £5.15.9. for workhouse orphans who were being sent to South Australia. In 1852 she also contributed to a relief fund for the families of a number of local men who were drowned in the bay.  A John Sherin was a coroner in Dungarvan in1830 and may have been her husband.  Her shop appears in one of the earliest photographs in the museum’s image archive.

Sherin shop on Grattan Square