Cross-inscribed stone (present location), Dublin North City, Co. Dublin

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Crosses & Monuments

Cross-inscribed stone (present location), Dublin North City, Co. Dublin

Somewhere in the care of the Office of Public Works sits a granite block that has quietly outlasted the graveyard it once belonged to.

It measures 0.74 metres long and just 0.20 metres thick, modest enough to be overlooked entirely, yet carved on its face is an equal-armed cross set within a circle, a motif executed in false relief, meaning the design is created by cutting away the surrounding surface so that the cross and circle appear to stand proud of the stone rather than being incised into it. What makes the object quietly peculiar is not the carving itself but its placement on the stone: the design sits off-centre, occupying one portion of the face rather than the middle, which gives the whole thing a slightly unresolved quality, as though the carver worked to a logic we can no longer follow.

The stone was originally located in the graveyard at Tully, recorded separately in the Sites and Monuments Record under the reference DU026-023020-, before being moved to its present location in Dublin North City. The cross-in-circle is a form with deep roots in early medieval Irish Christianity, found on grave slabs, pillar stones, and wayside markers across the country, typically associated with ecclesiastical sites and burial grounds. This particular example is cut into granite, a harder and less forgiving material than sandstone, which may partly explain the unevenness of the work. Part of the enclosing circle and one arm of the cross have been defaced, whether through deliberate damage or simple weathering is not recorded. Three sides of the block, one long edge and both short ends, have been dressed to a clean straight line, while the remaining long side and the rear have been left in their rough, unworked state. Crucially, there is no evidence of breakage at either end, which, according to Corlett's 2014 study of the stone, suggests this is the original size and shape the carver intended.

Because the stone is now in the custody of the Office of Public Works rather than displayed in situ at Tully, a prospective visitor would need to make enquiries directly with the OPW about its precise whereabouts and whether it can be viewed. It is the kind of object that rewards close inspection rather than distance: the false relief carving is subtle and the defaced sections are easier to read when the light falls at a low angle across the surface, picking out the texture of the dressed and undressed edges and giving some sense of the care, selective as it was, that went into shaping this small and unassuming piece of stone.

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