The McKernan Memorial (1937–40) is one of the largest and most ambitious of Power’s works at Glasnevin Cemetery — a tall crucifixion cross bearing a full figure of Christ on the cross, with the letters INRI above his head, his head bowed beneath a halo. Carved scrollwork and a small figure of an angel occupy the upper arms of the cross.
Below the figure of Christ, the lower shaft of the cross carries further devotional carved panels showing additional figures, continuing the narrative programme down the full height of the monument. The scale and figurative ambition of the piece — a fully modelled crucified Christ rather than a flat relief or plain cross — places it among the most significant single funerary commissions Power undertook.
It forms part of Power’s substantial and sustained body of funerary work at Glasnevin, which also includes the Downes and Lardner Monuments (1925), the Archbishop Walsh Memorial (1926–29), and the Cait O’Kelly Memorial (1936).