What is recorded here

Half a cross and three words, ORIT AR CLE, survived on a lost slab at Clonmacnoise. Petrie saw it in 1822; after that it vanished. The corner may have marked an ordinary person, a forgotten cleric or a child buried beneath a great church. Whatever it pointed to, the stone refused to keep the answer.

Clonmacnoise grave-slab inventory (1992) number: CLN00579 Dimensions: Unknown. Corner of a two line panel with inscription beneath. Inscription: 'ORIT AR CLE'. Evidence of discovery: Petrie 1822. Condition: Lost after 1822. Stokes, M. (1878) Christian Inscriptions in the Irish language, Vol 1, p XV, no. 38. 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

Dateable to the early Christian period, likely 8th to 10th century AD, the inscription suggests a personal or dedicatory phrase, possibly a name or invocation associated with a local figure or saint. Such cross-slabs were often used as grave markers or commemorative monuments in monastic or ecclesiastical contexts.

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