Cross, Glebe, Co. Wexford
Co. Wexford |
Crosses & Monuments
In the graveyard just south of a church tower in Glebe, Co. Wexford, two small crosses cut from green stone sit quietly among the graves.
They are easy to overlook, and that is partly the point: these are not grand monuments but intimate, worked objects, and one of them carries an unusual detail that rewards a closer look.
The better-documented of the two is a finial cross, the kind originally designed to cap a gable, roof ridge, or grave marker rather than stand as a freestanding monument in its own right. It is modest in scale, measuring roughly 28 centimetres high with a span of 29 centimetres, and was carved in a Latin cross form. What makes it technically interesting is the treatment of its stem: the edges have been chamfered, meaning the corners were cut away at an angle, giving it eight sides rather than four. It is a small piece of craft, the kind of deliberate geometric shaping that takes extra time and skill. The head of the cross is now missing, and the arms have been worn down by erosion, so what survives is a fragment of something that once had a more complete and considered form. The green stone itself, relatively unusual as a choice for ecclesiastical carving, gives both pieces a quiet visual distinctiveness against the surrounding ground.