School: Kilkea, Mageney (roll number 9123)
- Location:
- Kilkea Lodge Farm, Co. Kildare
- Teacher: Cáit Ní Chába
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0781, Page 286
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- XML School: Kilkea, Mageney
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- XML “A Holed Cross at Moone”
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- (continued from previous page)with their tails inter-rolled.
In 1897 when Lord Water Fitzgerald was assisting Miss Stokes in taking measurements of the two crosses he discovered in the fragment of this one, that the cross-head when entire had a large perforation through the centre of it, around which perforation on one side three or four snakes or serpents were originally coiled.
This Moone cross is believed to be unique, as there is no other instance of a sculptured cross being "holed" through the head in this manner.
Miss Stokes has written a very interesting paper on these fragments, in which she says that this is "one of the most striking examples of the combination of Pagan forms with Christian that has been found in Ireland."
Taking into consideration the guarding of the central opening by serpents, and the representation on various panels of "Bulls with Human Faces", of "Boars Fighting", of "Deer and Fawn", of a "Flying Dragon", and of "Bacchus on a Panther," it is not improbable that this cross is a remnant of some local paganism in connection with Phallic worship.
