What is recorded here

Half-buried in Taghshinny's north-wall rubble, the broken cross still points an arm toward the sky. Its chipped edge preserves the name Mael Maire, a mortal made visible through stone and prayer. The museum took it from that graveyard in 1999, pulling a local memory out of the rain and into a distant room.

Within Taghshinny graveyard (LF023-097002-), in rubble close to the N wall. One of two cross-slabs (see also LF023-97003-.) It comprises two fragments which form the basal end of a cross-slab (dims. H 0.41m; Wth 0.31m; T 0.07m). On one face part of the stem and one complete arm of a cross, with a D-shaped terminal, is visible. At the intersection of the stem and arm is a small incised cross with D-shaped terminals within a circle. Fragments of an inscription, running parallel to the right-hand side of the stem, read AELM..A..RE, from top to bottom. Corlett (1998, 115-18) has speculated that 'the usual prefix OR [OIT] DO (a prayer for) was presumably on the left side and that the dedication was to [M]AEL MÁ[I]RE' (Ibid. 2001, 41). In 1999 the cross-slab was removed from Taghshinny graveyard by the National Museum of Ireland for safe keeping in Kildare Street (NMI Reg. No. 1999:59). Cross-reference with DU018-470---- Compiled and revised by: Patrick F. O'Donovan, Caimin O'Brien Date of revised upload: 22 May 2023

This cross-slab fragment likely dates to the early medieval period, associated with Christian burial practices. It may have originally formed part of a high cross marking a grave or serving a liturgical function within the cemetery.

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