What is recorded here

In 1971 men lifted a thin flag stone from the altar of Teach Molaise on Inishmurray Island and carried it to the National Museum of Ireland, leaving an empty space where prayers had pressed against rock for centuries. The chips and smoothing on its edges suggest hands had handled it often, perhaps warming it before church or reading it by candlelight until the words became muscle memory. Nerach and Talt remain named in the inscription, but the chamber that gave the stone its meaning has lost one of its voices.

This record refers to the present location of an inscribed stone which was first recorded by Wakeman (1893, 85, fig. 41) on the altar (SL001-001007-) of Teach Molaise (SL001-001005-) in the Cashel (SL001-001001-) on Inishmurray Island, Co. Sligo. It was removed to the National Museum of Ireland in 1971 (National Museum Register No 1971: 1118). It is recorded at its original location on under the number: SL001-001045- Inscribed thin flat stone or flag (H: 0.31 m, W: 0.21 m, Th: 0.065). Wakeman, and subsequently the National Museum of Ireland could not decipher this at first, but Heraughty (1982, 33) gives the inscription as: ORAIR AR NEARACH:DO RIGHNE CRIX TALT PRO ANIMIS NOSTRIBUS Heraughty’s transcription would translate as ‘Nerach who made [this] Cross [of] Talt, on behalf of our souls.' The above description is derived from the results of a survey of the archaeological monuments on Inishmurray undertaken in 1997-1999 and published in: Jerry O’Sullivan and Tomás Ó Carragáin 2008 Inishmurrary. Monks and pilgrims in an Atlantic landscape. Volume 1: Archaeological Survey and Excavations 1997-2000. Cork. The Collins Press. Date of upload: 20 February 2018

Dated to the early Christian period, the inscribed stone likely served a ritual or commemorative function, possibly associated with the monastic site of Teach Molaise. Its relocation to its present location obscures its original context, though it may have been part of a liturgical or funerary tradition.

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