What is recorded here

Half a metre of chipped stone, a cross with a looped end and a fret pattern inside the loop, and three letters still standing, LAI[G], buried under lime and time. Boxwell drew it in 1869, long after the monastery fell quiet, and the drawing kept what the weather was eating. Someone cut a cross for another person, perhaps a child or a lover, and stood behind it when the chisel stopped. The name is gone except for a seam of letters, but the shape of the gesture remains: make something good enough to outlive the hand that made it.

Clonmacnoise grave-slab inventory (1992) number: CLN00409 Dimensions: H 0.505, W 0.40, T 0.035 Triple outline expansional cross with a looped terminal containing a fret pattern. Inscription: Part of a verticle inscription 'LAI[G]'. Evidence of discovery: Drawn by Boxwell in 1869. Condition: Fragment with part of terminal; lime damaged. National Monuments Service, Photo number: 81-106, 380, 950 Stokes, M. (1878) Christian Inscriptions in the Irish language, Vol 1, p LXXII, no. 172. The Clonmacnoise inventory was compiled by the Office of Public Works. A copy of the record for this slab is available for inspection in the relevant Archaeological Survey of Ireland (SMR) file. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien. Date of upload: 23 May 2011

Date likely to the 9th to 11th century AD, consistent with early Christian inscribed cross-slabs in Ireland. The cross and inscription suggest a liturgical or commemorative function, possibly marking a grave or ecclesiastical boundary.

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