Monument, Eoghanacht, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Holy Sites & Wells
On the southern side of the road between Eoghanacht and Cill Mhuirbhigh on Inis Mór, two stone monuments stand close together in the landscape, near enough to suggest they belong to the same story.
The westernmost of the pair is almost identical to its neighbour, a detail that quietly raises more questions than it answers.
The monument itself is a square mortared pier, roughly a metre wide on each side and standing just over two metres tall, topped with a cross. On its north face are two plaques commemorating Patrick Dirrane, both dated 1890. The presence of two plaques rather than one is unusual, though the notes offer no explanation for the duplication, nor any further detail about who Dirrane was or what the second plaque was intended to add or correct. The paired structure immediately to the west mirrors this one closely enough to suggest a deliberate grouping, though again the relationship between the two is not recorded. Wayside crosses and memorial piers of this kind were a common form of public commemoration in rural Ireland, particularly in the nineteenth century, often erected at the spot of a death or along a route associated with the deceased.