What is recorded here

Broken shafts of a cross lie half-buried in the Glassely graveyard, their stones marked 1615 and crowded with prayers for William and Ellinor FitzGerald. The dead name still stands out like a scratch on the surface, refusing to fit the finished story. What is missing has not stopped the cross speaking; it has only tightened the question around the names it preserves.

In a graveyard (KD032-037004-) which also contains a ruined church (KD032-037001-) and fragments of a Fitzgerald chest tomb (KD032-037002-). According to Fitzgerald (1912-14b, 1913, 83), ‘All the stone fragments … were discovered by me deeply sunk in the ground in different parts of the churchyard in March 1898 and April 1900. I caused them to be dug up with local assistance in order to take photographs of and make rubbings from them.’ Two portion of a cross shaft survive (total H c. 1.45m); the upper one having a mortice hole to take the cross-head, and bearing the date 1615 with the Crucifixion carved above, and the lower fragment with a dowel and the inscription ‘Pray/ for W.F/ G.E.FG/&D.T.M., which Fitzgerald (op. cit) interprets as, ‘Pray for William FitzGerald, Ellinor FitzGerald, &. The D.T.M initials are a puzzle.’ Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 30 October 2013

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