Mark and I went to Athlone Castle on Saturday, on our last full day in Athlone, to see the Sheela-na-gig. I read in Sacred Ireland by Cary Meehan that there was one there, right in my Irish backyard. Imagine our surprise when we were let into the musty, dusty museum in the castle’s round tower and found two of them.
The one from Athlone that I’m sitting next to has a large head, but I really can’t distinguish with any certainty much else about her. Her left arm is more distinct and the right one is either worn or otherwise damaged. It almost looks as if her feet are at her genitals. She was salvaged from a 12th century Cluniac Monastery in Athlone on what is now Abbey Lane. 
The other is from Rahan Church in Co. Offaly. If you didn’t know about sheela-na-gigs you might think she was holding her knees. Let me assure you, those are not her knees she's clutching.
