Cross, Dunmore, Co. Galway

Co. Galway |

Crosses & Monuments

Cross, Dunmore, Co. Galway

In the yard of the local library in Dunmore village, County Galway, a small limestone cross sits on a plinth, easy to walk past without a second thought.

It measures just over half a metre tall and a little under forty centimetres wide, with the slightly flared arm-ends known as expanded terminals, a feature common to early Irish stone crosses. There is nothing elaborate about it, no carved figure, no knotwork, no inscription. Its plainness is precisely what makes it worth pausing over.

Local tradition holds that the cross came from the old church that once stood roughly three hundred metres to the north-east of its current position. That connection to an older ecclesiastical site gives the object a quiet gravity. Crosses of this type were often associated with early Christian enclosures, sometimes marking boundaries, sometimes serving as focal points for prayer or assembly. When such sites fell into disuse or ruin, their stones frequently travelled, absorbed into field walls, farmyards, or, in this case, a library grounds. The move into the library yard has at least kept it visible and relatively protected, even if the original context is lost.

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Pete F
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