What is recorded here

Two broken fragments from Inchbofin island now rest in the Athenry depot, preserving D-shaped cross ends and fret patterns carved before the slab was lost. They travelled from Lough Ree to Raheen after ground-clearance work exposed them near the old church. The differing patterns on each fragment suggest a completed cross rather than a copy, inviting imagination about the craftsman who cut them and the community that stood beneath them.

Only two fragments of this cross-slab survive. The larger fragment, which Crawford (1913, 329, 1. (h)) recorded as being ‘1 ft. 2 in. by 1 ft. [c. 0.35m by 0.3m]’, bears what appears to be the lower part of the shaft of the cross, which ends in a D-shaped terminal with a fret pattern. The smaller fragment ‘5 in. by 4 in. [0.12m by 0.1m]’ (ibid.) bears most of the D-shaped terminal of the dexter arm; its fret pattern is slightly different to that of the other terminal. Differing fret patterns are also visible on the cross-slab (GA084-151032-/WM015-001009-). The fragments were found during ground-clearance works in the vicinity of the church (WM015-001----) on Inchbofin island on Lough Ree, Co. Westmeath (Commissioners of Public Works 1913, Appendix E, Slab G) and is currently kept in the OPW depot in Athenry. See WM015-001013- for its original location. Compiled by: Olive Alcock Date of upload: 2 March 2023 Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland 1913 Eighty-first annual report of the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland with appendices for the year ending 31st March 1913. London. HMSO.

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