Cross-slab (present location) in Raheen (athenry By.)

This cross-slab was recorded by Bigger (1900, 80-81) as being located close to 'The Woman's Church' (LF021-048007-) on Inchcleraun island, Co. Longford (see LF021-048009- for original location). It is now in the care of the OPW (Athenry depot, Co. Galway). Bigger (ibid.) described it as 'a stone bearing incised on its surface a Celtic interlaced cross with remains of an Irish inscription. It is a rough, irregular slab of sandstone grit about 6 inches [0.15m] thick and about 26 inches [0.66m] by 21 inches [0.53m] in size'. This irregularly shaped slab (H 0.69m; 0.55m x 0.15m) is decorated with a triple-lined incised double, Latin cross with central incised circle containing a geometric pattern and expanded D-shaped terminals which also contain geometric patterns. Running parallel along both sides of the cross are the remains of a two line Irish inscription. Crawford (1913, 326) recorded one of these, which was in half uncial script and is now very worn and no longer decipherable, as reading 'OR [OIT] DO LAITHB[ER]TACH'. This translates as 'A Prayer For Laithb[er]tach'. The second inscription reads 'B, ?, A, C, H', the second letter being too worn to decipher. (English 1971, 148; Ciuchini 2010, Stone B, 91, 102, fig. 5) Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 12 June 2012

This cross-slab likely dates to the early medieval period (6th–11th centuries) and may have originally served as a Christian memorial or ecclesiastical marker, associated with the nearby "Woman's Church." Its relocation to its present site has obscured some of its original context, but such cross-slabs often carried religious or commemorative inscriptions.