Local history: Cross of Cong dates from 1123

By Tom Gillespie

THE magnificent Cross of Cong is considered one of the finest examples of metalwork and decorative art of its period in Western Europe.

The cross was made in 1123 to encase a fragment of the True Cross that was brought to Ireland and displayed in different places around the country.

The cross is so-called because it was kept in the Augustinian Friary at Cong for centuries.

In March 2010, the cross went on display at the National Museum of Ireland, Country Life, Turlough, Castlebar.

This was a historic occasion because for the first time since it left Cong in the 1820s, the Cross was back in Mayo, displayed in all its beauty and magnificence.

In fact, this was the first time that the cross had left Dublin since it went into the museum of the Royal Irish Academy.

Although made for the King of Connacht and High King of Ireland, with the intention of him donating it to the cathedral church in Tuam, the cross ended up in Cong Abbey.

Today, Cong is famous for being the setting of the 1952 film The Quiet Man. Before the phenomenon of The Quiet Man, however, Cong was noteworthy because of its 13th century Augustinian abbey, which contains some of the finest examples of medieval religious architecture in Ireland.

A church was built at the site of the abbey in the 7th century, allegedly by St. Feichin, and the settlement grew up around it.

Some 500 years later the High King of Ireland at the time, Turlough Mór O’Connor, founded the abbey there and the town was born. His son Ruaidri was Ireland’s last High King, and spent the last 15 years of his life in the abbey.

Over the following centuries the abbey was attacked more than once, first by the Norman knight William de Burgh, and later by Henry VIII, who suppressed the abbey in 1542 and instigated its slow decline.

It was used by monks intermittently, with the last abbot being Fr. Patrick Prendergast, who lived there from 1795 until his death in 1829.

The Cross of Cong is a processional cross, a type of cross common at the time. It would have been mounted on top of a long wooden pole when used in public, carried up the centre aisle of the church at the head of the procession, and then removed from its staff and placed on the altar.

The cross was commissioned by the King of Connacht and, according to the inscription of the cross at least, High King of Ireland. He had it made in order to donate it - and thus form a valuable partnership with the Cathedral of Tuam.

With the ornate and elaborate decoration that covers the cross, one would be forgiven for thinking that it is made entirely from a solid piece of metal. In fact, its interior is actually just a simple wooden cross, covered in several precious metals including gold, silver, copper, bronze and brass as well as enamel and coloured glass.

Almost every inch of the cross is covered with gold filigree and strap work, combining Celtic, Viking and Romanesque imagery and designs. Like almost all Irish art from this period, animal motifs also feature strongly.

The cross stands 30 inches high and 19 inches wide, and inscriptions along its side offer prayers for the people who helped the cross come into existence and supervised its creation. Another inscription also states that ‘In this cross is preserved the cross on which the founder of the world suffered’.

Glass beads, some of which are now missing, are placed at intervals along the sides and down the centre of each arm of the cross, and in the meeting point of the arms is a dome of crystal glass which once held the relic, now also missing.

Brass panels along the front and back of the arms are covered in intricate interlacing patterns. Strapwork in the (Viking) Urnes style is present on these panels, consisting of snaking designs which the Irish craftsmen adapted into animals.

At the base of the cross is a stylised beast head with the cross clamped in its mouth, something typical of continental art of the time, particularly German crosses. Beneath the head is the ornately decorated rounded socket into which the staff would have been inserted.

Underneath the decorative surface of the cross are two important symbols. On the wooden core of the cross is carved the shape of another cross, now known as a Cross of Lorraine, which is said to be a symbol for the true cross. There is also evidence that an earlier circular container was placed underneath the rock crystal, and that this is where the relic was placed. Either way, the cross was extremely valuable due to both the relic and the extraordinary craftsmanship that went into making it, and would only have been used for very special ceremonies.

The cross was originally known as the Cross of Roscommon since it was made and started its life there. Although it was in Tuam for a time, it was transferred to Cong at some point, most likely for safekeeping with the increasing threat of attacks and invasions of religious sites in Ireland.

It was probably used there for very special occasions in the following centuries, but would have been hidden among locals and members of religious orders in their own homes due to persecution against Catholics during the Penal Laws. One thing is for sure, it would never have been on public display at this time when not in use.

Eventually, in 1829, the cross finally emerged from hiding when the last abbot of Cong, Fr. Prendergast, revealed on his deathbed that he had been keeping it hidden in his belongings for decades. Despite his efforts, some antiquarians had come to know of its existence. One of them, a professor at Trinity College named James MacCullagh, used his own money to purchase the cross from Prendergast’s successor. He gave it to the Royal Irish Academy, who gave it pride of place in the National Museum of Ireland (when they built it 60 years later).