Ogham stone (present location)

The National Monuments Service's description

This is the present location for the ogham stone from Portersgate, Co. Wexford (WX054-004----). Fragments of this ogham stone were found in 1845 on the shore below Brecaun Church (WX054-003002-) (Barry 1896, 127-8), and c. 1930 another fragment was found which enabled Macalister (1930, 54-5; 1945, 50-51, no. 46) to read the inscription as: SEDAN [1 MAQQI CAT]TABGBOTT AVVI DERCMASOC. He describes the stone as ‘3 ft. 10 ½ inches, by 1 ft. by 8 inches thick’ (c. 1.18m x c. 0.3m x c. 0.2m). In the mythological history of early Ireland Derc Masoc was the son of Cathair Mór, who was said to have been one of the first kings to have ruled all of Ireland. Derc Masoc was the progenitor of Uí Deirc Mosaig, the ruling family of Ath Cliath Cualann, or the Dublin area. Archaeological excavation in 1987 found the final missing piece of the ogham stone (Breen 1988).

Compiled by: Nora White

Date of upload: 3 August 2016

References

Macalister, R. A. S. 1930 The ogham inscription of Hook Point, Co. Wexford, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 60, 52-5.

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

Barry, Rev. E. 1896 On ogham-stones seen in Kilkenny County. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 26, 122-35.

Breen, T.C. 1988 “Brecaun church”, Portersgate. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 1987: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 30-31. Bray. Wordwell.