Cross

The National Monuments Service's description

Church ruins (LI001-004001-) of a possible early Christian monastery stands on the grounds of 'Cloon Island Ho.' (NIAH Reg. No. 21807009) located 20m to the SW. Two early Christian cross-slabs (LI001-004002-/003-) are incorporated into the W gable of this church. No church is depicted on the Down Survey map of Stradbally parish and not mentioned in the terrier of the map where it is described as 'an Island in ye Shannon' (NLI, MS 718).
A possible cross-base was recently recorded by Okasha and Forsyth (2001, 187-8) and described as following; 'Cloon island is a former island in the channels of the river Shannon, 7km downstream of Killaloe. The site now covers approximately nine acres but the water is considerably lower than previously, due to a hydro-electric scheme extraction. The ruined church may date from the twelfth century. In addition to the inscribed stone [LI001-004002-], evidence of an early medieval foundation is provided by an uninscribed cross-slab (H. 65 cm, W. 80 cm) incised with a Latin cross with expanded terminals, enclosed in a rectangular frame [LI001-004003-]. Between the church [LI001-004001-] and the house [Cloon House] there is a cross-base, with a T-shaped slot, of unknown date'

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 1 May 2020

References

Okasha, E. and Forsyth, K. 2001 Early Christian inscriptions of Munster: a corpus of the inscribed stones. Cork University Press.

NLI, MS 718 - National Library of Ireland, Parish maps with terriers, showing forfeited lands in County Limerick, commonly known as the "Down Survey", executed under the direction of Sir William Petty, 1657, and copied by Daniel O'Brien, 1786.