What is recorded here

The cross-inscribed pillar in Eochaill (bar. Árainn) stands partly buried in a children’s graveyard north of Monasterkieran, its flat face still showing two parallel lines that formed a Latin cross. Reused as a grave marker, it belongs to a small cluster of similar cross-bearing stones nearby, suggesting the place long marked death, prayer and memory rather than ordinary fieldwork.

Recorded by Higgins (1987, vol. 2, 328, no. 54), this fragment of a possible cross-inscribed pillar is located in the children’s burial ground (GA111-002005-) to the N of ‘Monasterkieran’ (GA111-002001-). It is partly embedded in the ground and has been reused as a grave-marker. The fragment (L 0.78m; Wth 0.38m; T 0.11m) has a large boss on either side and bears a pair of parallel lines on its flat face that are part of a two-line Latin cross similar to those on other cross-inscribed pillars and cross-slabs in the vicinity (see GA111-002003-, GA111-002004-, GA111-002006-, GA111-002007 and GA111-002012-) (ibid.). Compiled by: Olive Alcock Date of upload: 3 May 2016

This cross-inscribed pillar fragment likely dates to the early Christian period in Ireland, possibly between the 7th and 10th centuries AD. Such stones were often used for religious or commemorative purposes, and their placement near a burial ground suggests a connection to Christian funerary practices or local monastic activity.

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