Cross-slab, Whitechurch, Co. Dublin

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Crosses & Monuments

Cross-slab, Whitechurch, Co. Dublin

Propped against the exterior wall of a chancel in Whitechurch, County Dublin, a slab of granite quietly holds two different crosses in one.

That combination, a Greek cross enclosed within a circle at the top, and then a Latin cross with small raised bosses beneath its arms running down the length of the stone, is not accidental repetition but a deliberate layering of early Christian iconographic traditions onto a single face of dressed local stone.

The slab is tapered, measuring 1.5 metres in length and narrowing from 0.54 metres at its widest to 0.46 metres at its base, a form commonly associated with early medieval grave markers in Ireland. The stone itself is granite, the predominant material of the Dublin hills. The design as recorded by Ó hÉailidhe in 1982 and further described by Turner in 1983 shows the Greek cross, in which all four arms are of equal length, set within a circular frame at the upper portion of the slab. Below that, the shaft of a Latin cross, distinguished by its longer descending arm, extends toward the bottom of the stone, with bosses, small rounded projections carved in relief, placed beneath the arms. The bosses are a detail worth noting; they appear on a number of early Irish cross-slabs and are thought by some researchers to derive from metalwork traditions, imitating the decorative rivets found on shrines and reliquaries of the same period.

The slab is attached to the exterior of the chancel wall, which means it can be viewed without entering any building. Whitechurch is a townland in the southern Dublin foothills, and the site sits within what remains of a historic churchyard. The stone is registered under the Archaeological Survey of Ireland reference DU022-0300001-. Because it is set against a wall rather than lying flat, the carving is reasonably legible from a standing position, though the depth of the incised lines means that low, raking light on an overcast day tends to bring the detail out more clearly than bright sunshine.

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