Cross-slab

The National Monuments Service's description

Cross-slab from Gallen that was first recorded by J. Graves in 1872 and was located in 1949`in an out-house near the gate-lodge' (Macalister 1949, 72) and described by Petries as`lying in a low, grassy mound...near the village of Ferbane...Drawn by M[argaret] S[tokes] from rubbings taken by the Rev. James Graves and Mr Hennessy' (Petrie/1872, 74). Macalister recorded that `In 1907 Mr. Armstrong visited the site...[and] identified...the DIAM slab [no. 851]...Mr Kendrick did not find the DIAM stone... [and that] stone is missing. But he found another slab [no. 852]...and there can be no reasonable doubt that it is the missing half of the DIAM stone' (Macalister 1949, 72). The slab was decorated with `an approximately equal-armed cross in a square' (Macalister 1949, 72) and was accompanied by an inscription which reads DIAM[R{A}N] that can be expanded to read DIAMRÁN. This slab was recorded in 1949 as being located on site at Gallen church (OF014-029008-).

Cross Slab, two fragments remaining, lower left section missing. East Wall, West Facing, South off Centre.
Diagram Number 26
Inventory of Carved Stone ID 000026
Dimensions: Height 0.79m Width0.72m
Cross slab. Incomplete. Sinister two lower edges straight and even, angle of lower sinister cut across. The design consists of a double outline ringed cross, the angles of the cross are curved, crating a lozenge effect in the centre. There are small pellets in the two sinister quadrants and at the now barely discernible centre. Outside the plain ring the arms are rectangular in the outline. The design is enclosed by double incised rectangular frame. In the lower sinister quadrant outside the ring there is a horizontal inscription which reads 'RAH' or 'RAN'- now hard to trace.
Description from Inventory of Carved Stone, National Monuments Service Archive.
Kendrick, JRSAI 69 (1939) p. 11 (Fig 4)

References :
Macalister, R. 1949, no. 851 and no. 852
Macalister, R. 1949, 72-73 drawing concise discussion
Petrie, G. and Stokes, M. 1878 74, Plate 73, Fig. 175 drawing minor reference

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 17 August 2012

References

Kendrick, T.D. 1939 Gallen priory: excavations 1934-5. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 69, 1-20.

Petrie, G. 1878 Christian inscriptions in the Irish language. Chiefly collected and drawn by George Petrie, LL. D.; and edited by Margaret Stokes, 2 vols. Dublin.

Macalister, R.A.S. 1949 Corpus Inscriptionum Insularum Celticarum, 2 vols. Dublin. Irish Manuscripts Commission.