Cross-slab, Addergoole More, Co. Galway

Co. Galway |

Crosses & Monuments

Cross-slab, Addergoole More, Co. Galway

Among a scatter of rubble in a children's burial ground in Addergoole More, County Galway, sits a small boulder with a crude single-line cross incised into its surface.

It is not an elaborate monument, not a dressed stone with careful lettering. Just a rough mark on a rough rock, the kind of thing that could be walked past without a second glance.

Children's burial grounds, known in Irish tradition as cilліní, were used for centuries to inter unbaptised infants, who were excluded by Catholic practice from consecrated ground. The crosses at Addergoole More are distributed across the site: one boulder lies in the south-east sector, noted among surrounding rubble and positioned to the east of a neighbouring cross-slab, while another similarly inscribed boulder lies in the south-south-west sector of the same ground. The repetition is telling. These were not isolated gestures but part of a broader, if understated, practice of marking the space as sacred, of insisting, quietly, that something religious had happened here even if the Church would not formally recognise it.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Cross-slab, Addergoole More, Co. Galway. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement