Ogham stone

The National Monuments Service's description

Found in 1841 by Mr. E. Hawkesworth; removed to the collection of the Royal Cork Institution and now on permanent display in the Stone Corridor, University College Cork (see CO074-144----). Recorded by Power (1932, 22, no. 23) as a pillar (5ft x 1ft 6ins) with well cut, clear scorings but nevertheless difficult to make sense of. He read EGSAMVVA MAQI LASCOG[I]. According to Macalister (1945, 124, no. 127), the stone (5ft 2ins x 1ft 9ins x 1ft 6ins) is of '....extremely irregular shape owing to violent treatment', the only unbroken part being the surface between the two lines of writing. He gave the inscription as MAQILASPOG B TTMACDE and suggested that some letters may have been painted on the surface of the stone between the B and TT (there is room for 7 scores here) to make the word BENEDICATT. He then interpreted the inscription to mean 'May the Son of God bless Bishop "Maqil"'. McManus (2004, 20, no. 20) reads: MAQI LAS?OG, B/M[ ]TTM[ ]Cge and describes Macalister's interpretation as 'rather fanciful'. Macalister (1945, 126, no. 127) also noted that there had 'unquestionably' been an earlier inscription on the stone which had been completely destroyed and that the shape of the block now suggests that the bishop's inscription is on the original base. This inscription was partially buried when the stone was first discovered (ibid). (Power et al. 1997, no. 7990)

Compiled by: Nora White

Date of upload: 9 March 2016

References

Macalister, R.A.S. 1945 Corpus inscriptionum insularum celticarum. Dublin. Stationery Office.

Power, D., Byrne, E., Egan, U., Lane, S. and Sleeman, M. 1997 Archaeological inventory of county Cork, vol. 3: Mid Cork. Dublin. Stationery Office.

Power, P. 1932c Ogham stones. University College Cork. Cork University Press.

McManus, D. 2004 The ogam stones at University College Cork. Cork University Press.