Many of the Sheela-no-gigs that have been found were associated with Churches and while they cannot be dated, most are associated with places that were in use between the 12th and the 14th century. There is also a folk memory of someone named Sheela in all those places that the Irish went to in the late 1600s even though all memory of that name seems to be lost in Ireland. In these folk stories Sheela was the wife of St. Patrick! Could the Sheela na gig be a merging of ancient Celtic folk belief and the Christian creed through the figure of Sheela, possibly representing the bringing of life (through its obvious imagery) and her "marriage" to the Saint?
https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-sty ... -1.3013056
This Smithsonian article about the Sheela na gig also points to a map which plots all the finds:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-new ... 180964597/
https://www.heritagemaps.ie/WebApps/Her ... index.html
Sheela-na-gig
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