What is recorded here

Half a mile from Johnstown Bridge, a limestone cross stands on a tall column at a T-junction, its base carved with a cherub and marked IHS 1412. Some say it was dug up nearby in the 1830s and set there as a memorial to lost faith; others trace it to an older church of St Fionntan at Clonagh. Whichever is true, the cross has outlived the hands that moved it, still pointing upward where the road bends.

Stands at a T-junction at the SW end of Johnstown Bridge village. Fitzgerald (1891-5, 207) states that it was dug up in the neighbourhood c. 1830 and erected as a commemorative 'suppression' cross, while O'Leary (1896-9, 135-8) suggests that it originated at a church dedicated to St Fionntan at Clonagh Td (KD003-0020----) c. 1.5 miles to the WSW. A pyramidal limestone cross-base (H 0.46m; Wth 0.57m) has a later, 19th century, cherub carved in relief on one face, and carries a small cross in the mortice on its upper surface, on which 'IHS 1412' is carved. It has been placed on a tall column (H 2.2m; Wth 0.6m) of well-dressed limestone blocks. Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 10 June 2011

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