What is recorded here

Half a meter of green stone lies flat beside the west wall on Holy Island, its broken name still reading Do Maol Sechnaill across the cross. The inverted triangle and rounded point suggest a craftsman who understood death as shape rather than fear. A person named Maol Sechnaill may have walked this small island, marked the end of a life, and trusted the stone to remember what tongue and breath had forgotten.

A recumbent cross-slab situated beside the W wall of the ‘Saint’s graveyard’ (CL029-009030-) on Inis Cealtra (19.3m from the S wall and 1.8m from the W wall). Noted by Macalister (1916-17, 159, no. 67) as of ‘twelfth-century type’. Described by Okasha and Forsyth (2001, 87-9) as a large cross-slab (H 1.16m; Wth 0.43m; T 0.5m). The face is incised with an outline Latin cross with hollowed angles. The top and shaft are open. The arms meet lines which frame the length of the slab. The cross sits on a base of unusual shape carved in low relief, consisting of an inverted triangle with large flat bosses at the upper corners and rounded apex. The end of the slab is shaped to a rounded point. An incomplete inscription in two horizontal lines across the top of the cross reads ‘SEC ||H||NAILL [-]DOMAEL’. Taking the lower line first the text reads ‘…do Máel Sechnaill’. Compiled by: Mary Tunney Date of upload: 27 October 2015

A recumbent cross-slab likely dating to the 12th century, associated with a medieval Christian site; such stones often marked ecclesiastical boundaries or commemorated saints. Inishcaltra, known as Holy Island, was an important monastic centre, and the slab may reflect its role in early Irish Christianity.

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