Inscribed stone in Beginish (iveragh By.)

This stone is inscribed with a Runic inscription. It was read as LIR. RISTI. STIN. ThINA + [MUNUIKL] RISTI. [RUN] which was translated by Kavanagh (in O'Kelly 1956, 174) as: LIR ERECTED THIS STONE; M … CARVED (THE) RUNES. Kavanagh suggested that the inscription probably dates to sometime between 1000 and 1100 AD. An equal-armed cross is pocked onto the surface of the stone above the second word of the inscription (O'Sullivan and Sheehan 1996, 385-7, no. 1132). There is a discussion on this inscribed stone in an article entitled 'A Viking Age Maritime Haven' by J. Sheehan, S. Stummann Hansen and D. O Corráin (2001) in the Journal of Irish Archaeology 10, pp. 101-3. The article cites Johnsen (1968, 220-21), a Norwegian runologist who proposes that the Irish name LIR in the translation more likely reads VERR, an Old Norse name (p. 101). Other suggestions by Barnes, Hagland and Page (1997, 58) agree that the O'Kelly and Kavanagh reading of the inscription, in particular the LIR element, may be flawed and suggest an alternative reading UIR. According to Sheehan, Stummann Hansen and O Corráin, the alternative readings 'must be accepted as being more authoritative than that proposed by O'Kelly and Kavanagh, if only on the grounds that the former individuals [Johnsen; Barnes, Hagland and Page (ibid.)] are specialists in runes'. This inscribed stone is now in Cork Public Museum - registered no. L286 (See CO074-173----). (O'Sullivan and Sheehan 1996, 385-7, no. 1132; Barnes, Ragnar Hagland and Page 1997, 56-9; Sheehan et al. 2001, 93-119) Compiled by: Sheila Ronan Date of upload: 15 January 2013