Cross-slab

The National Monuments Service's description

One of six cross-slabs (DU018-278-/283-) now located inside St Patrick’s Cathedral (DU018-020269-).  This granite slab (L 1.12m x Wth 0.44m-0.37m x T 0.2m-0.27m) is located at the W end of the nave of St. Patrick's Cathedral (DU018-020269-). The upper part is broken away and missing. The sides are straight and it is decorated on one face only which is level and flat (Swords 2009, No. 53, 102). Listed by Crawford (1913, 166) as stone 1b and described as; ‘A granite slab 3 ft. 6 in. [1.06m] long by 1 ft. 3 in. [0.38m] wide, carved with a three line cross having a circular centre and semi-circular ends. The former contains a fret pattern and the latter triquetras. The upper portion is missing, (a and b are now placed in the N.W. angle of the cathedral)’.  Listed by Ó hÉailidhe  (1973) as slab 6E and described as follows; ‘This slab lies at the west end of the north aisle (Lionard 1961, 129). It is unusual in so far as it is nearly as thick as it is wide. It bears an expansional cross with a three line shaft, but due to the narrow shape of the stone, there are no arms and the centre and side expansions meet. There is a key pattern in the centre and triquetra interlaces in the expansions of the arms and base. The slab is also bordered, and the border is carried around the bottom expansion to form the shaft. Expansional crosses were used extensively on grave-slabs mainly during the tenth and eleventh centuries. Out of 115 expansional cross slabs at Clonmacnoise only a few are either shaped or bordered. The expansions almost without exception contain key or fret patterns and the only one containing a triquetra knot can be dated to 994 (Lionard 1961, 131-136).

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

References

Lionard, P. 1961 Early Irish grave-slabs. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 61C, 95-161. Ó hÉailidhe, P. 1973 Early Christian graveslabs in the Dublin region. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 103, 51-64. Crawford, H.S. 1913 A descriptive list of early cross-slabs and pillars. (cont.) Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 43, 151-69, 261-5, 326-34. Swords, K. (ed.) 2009 Pre-Norman grave-slabs and cross-inscribed stones in the Dublin region. 2009 edition of an NUIG MA thesis prepared in 1985. Tallaght, Dublin. Local Studies Section, South Dublin Library.