What is recorded here

In 1971 men lifted the stone from the altar in Teach Molaise and carried it off Inishmurray, breaking a relationship older than memory. They kept the fragment safe in a museum case, but they also killed the place where it belonged. The tiny cross and faint letters stopped being a warning, a prayer or a marker for the living. They became a dead thing to be owned.

This record refers to the present location of a fragment of an inscribed stone, which was recorded by Wakeman (1893, 115, fig. 57) on the altar in Teach Molaise (SL001-001005-) on Inishmurray Island, Co. Sligo. It was removed to the National Museum of Ireland in 1971 (Register No. 1971: 1115). Its original location is recorded under the number: SL001-001048-. Fragment of a slab (H: 0.285 m, W: 0.16 m, Th: 0.052 m) incised with probably base of cross motif. This comprises a false relief circle with a tiny central boss. Curving around this is a false relief strand which may originally have extended upwards to form a cross shaft. At its lower end the outer incised line delimiting the motif is joined to two parallel, axially positioned, incised lines 0.097 m long. On the opposite face are two almost obliterated letterforms which the National Museum Register tentatively identifies as ‘D’ or ‘O’ and ‘R’. This fragment and another fragment (SL001-001027-) may be part of the same cross-slab. The above description is derived from the results of a survey of the archaeological monuments on Inishmurray undertaken in 1997-1999 and published in: Jerry O’Sullivan and Tomás Ó Carragáin 2008 Inishmurrary. Monks and pilgrims in an Atlantic landscape. Volume 1: Archaeological Survey and Excavations 1997-2000. Cork. The Collins Press. Date of upload: 20 February 2018

Dated to the early Christian period (5th–9th century AD), the inscribed stone likely served a liturgical or commemorative function, possibly associated with a monastic or ecclesiastical site. Its relocation from Inishmurray suggests historical antiquarian interest, though its original meaning or dedication remains unclear.

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