Cross-inscribed stone in Cloon AND Commons

One of two cross-slabs (LI001-004003-) incorporated into a church (LI001-004001-) on the grounds of 'Cloon Island Ho.' which stands 20m to the SW. Church ruins situated on top of 'Cloon Island', overlooking the River Shannon from SW-W-N with the village of Castleconnell to SE. Cross-slab (a) described by Crawford (1912, 240) as following; 'Built into the west wall of the ruined church [LI001-004001-] on the island close to Castleconnell and Doonass. (a) A slab about 2 ft [0.6m] by 1 ft. 10 in. (0.55m), carved with a plain encircled Greek cross of two lines. Round the top is a defaced inscription, with small initial cross'. This slab was drawn by William Wakeman for Dr. Petrie in 1840 and described as following; 'The inscription on this stone is so much destroyed that only a few letters can be read. There are some indistinct markings on the right-hand side of the stone that look like part of an Ogham inscription. The stone is built into the interior face of the north wall of a very ancient church [LI001-004001-] upon an island in the Shannon, near Doonass' (Stokes 1872 Vol. 2, 13). The slab was described by Macalister (1949, 98) as 'an approximately circular disc of stone built into the outer face of the west wall of a small, plain ruined church on this island'. Macalister (ibid.) recorded the following reading of the Latin inscription as 'LOBED FECET CRUCE[M]'. Stone slab with Latin inscription of possible 8th century date which was recently described by Okasha and Forsyth (2001, 185-7) as following; 'The stone [dims. 0.34m x 0.35m] is built into the exterior face of the west wall of Cloon church [LI001-004001]. Its edges are rough and rather damaged but it appears to be substantially intact both the stone and the carving are badly weathered. The face of the stone contains an outline equal-armed cross set inside two concentric circles. The arms of the cross open into the circular frame formed by the two circles. The text fills the available space and may be complete. It is incised in two curved lines around the perimeter of the circle with the bottoms of the letters to the circle. The inner line begins at about the ten o'clock position and continues to the five o'clock position. The outer line begins at the two o'clock position and continues until the three o'clock position. The stone and the carving are badly weathered and the letters are highly deteriorated. The text is now very worn and too indistinct to read with any confidence. The present authors could find no evidence on the stone to justify this [Macalister's] reading and, indeed, the extant remains seem to rule it out'. Okasha and Forsyth could only identify a few letters and they recorded the inscription as now visible as '[.--][B][.][ND][--][L] | A[.][--]A'. This ruined medieval church is in the grounds of a private house at Cloon Island, Castleconnell. The stone is set 81cm from the ground and 69cm to the right (that is, the south) of the doorway and is obscured from view by a large shrub. The stone has been known since 1840 when W.F. Wakeman drew it for Petrie who stated that this stone was `built into the interior face of the north wall of a very ancient church upon an island in the Shannon, near Doonass'. Petrie may have made an error in describing which wall it was built into, an easy mistake if he had not himself seen the stone. Alternatively, the stone might have been moved from the north to the west wall at some time between 1840 and 1912 when Crawford described it in its present position.' See attached drawing of cross-slab by William Wakeman, taken from Stokes 1872, No. 15, plate VIII and drawing of slab No. 918 taken from Macalister 1949. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 1 May 2020