crosses historical ireland

Standing in the pretty village of Tynan is a High Cross which, like so many of its kind in Ulster, consists of two fragments, originally separate, mounted on top of one another. The head-fragment, with a prominent boss at its centre, was cleverly restored in the 19th century. The lower fragment bears a panel of Adam and Eve on one face and what is possibly a representation of David among the Israelites on the other....

An Early Christian monastery founded possibly by St. Berichter or Berchert who, with his father (a Saxon Prince) and two brothers, came to Ireland after the Synod of Whitby in 664. Another saint of the same name, who was possibly also Abbot of the monastery, died in 839.

The existing church is of various dates. The south end of the east wall is probably the oldest part (12th century?) while the south door and window are early 13th century. The present chancel was built in the 15th ce...

In a walled enclosure outside the village stands this gracile ninth-century High Cross, reassembled from fallen but intact sections found on the site of an early monastery attributed to St Columba. The carving is highly individual, the style outwardly ingenuous yet disarmingly beautiful in its effect. The details remain for the most part crisply defined and the subjects of the various panels can be readily identified, among them the Twelve Apostles, Adam and Eve, the Fiery Furnace, the Flight...

The first monastery was founded by St. Fiach, who was a bishop of all Leinster during St. Patrick's lifetime. One of the most famous abbots was Aedh who dedicated a life of St. Patrick, and who made the monastery a centre for studies dealing with St. Patrick.

The scant remains include two tall but undecorated granite crosses and a medieval church with pointed side-door....

This High Cross, with its beautiful flat stylised and naïve figures, is 17 feet high, unique and one of the most appealing of all the High Crosses. On the east face are Daniel and seven lions, the Sacrifice of Isaac, Adam and Eve, the Crucifixion; the south face has The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, The Flight into Egypt, The Three Children in the Fiery Furnace and various animal, while the north face has SS Paul and Anthony breaking bread in the desert.

The cross stands on the site...

From the old monastery there remain a small undecorated T-shaped cross which is 7 feet high, a Round Tower - 57 feet high, built of rounded beach stones and with a round-headed doorway, as well as scanty remains of two churches....

St. Patrick placed St. Cianan over the first church here in the 5th century. St. Cianan, who is credited with the building of the first stone church in Ireland, died in 489 and his body was said to have been preserved without decay. The monastery was plundered at least 10 times between 830 and 1149. The bodies of King Brian Boru and the other heroes slain at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 rested here for a night before being brought to Armagh for burial. Duleek became the centre of a diocese...

A focal point of the northern midlands where the provinces of Leinster, Ulster and Connaught all converge, Longford, where history and literature, tragedy and triumph are all woven together, takes its name from the ancient stronghold of the O'Farrell family (Long Fort - Fort of the O'Farrells). Bordered to the West by the majestic River Shannon, Longford is a county of rolling plains and picturesque stretches of water. The highest pint of the county, Cairn Hill, is only 279 m high, but from a...

On the east side of the road is a tall cross with Christ and an angel cut in low relief on one face. On the west side of the road is a tall and narrow cross with only stumps of arms, and there is a stone pillar with an incised ring-cross and a zigzag motif....

The shafts and head of one or two crosses, possibly of 11th century date. The decoration is well executed, and presents a fine study in loosely knit geometrical interlacing patterns....