I can't help noticing how similar these crosses are to standing stones. It's just an observation, but did the early abbots—who were of the same Irish social class who erected standing stones— repurpose an indigenous symbolic language? Both crosses and standing stones say: This Land is Mine!
Here's the cross at Mevagh, near a 12th century ruin built on the site of an early medieval church.
There's another ruined church near us, at Ray ("rye").
There's a cross inside that church, the tallest in Ireland. The cross was carved from granite with quartz inclusions, like I've seen in many standing stone circles.
Here's an example of a sacred stone with inclusions near the stone circle at Drombeg in Cork:
This is a stone in the Bohonagh Stone Circle, also in Cork:
In the early Christian period, the evangelists began carving bible stories on the crosses, and patterned decoration, although perhaps those patterns held a meaning for people at that time.
This is a carving on the cross at Cloncha, near Malin.
The ruined church at Cloncha.
The crosses in Donegal are the oldest in Ireland, because this is the home of St. Columba, who established the system Abbeys across Ireland, Scotland, and the rest of Europe.
The grounds of church at Kells, contain several examples of more elaborately carved crosses that came later.
This scene depicts the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. Those two circular things represent the river Jordan. Or maybe mushrooms. Who knows?
Recently, I passed St. Mary's, Catholic church in Ramelton, and saw its Irish cross against the horizon, looking so much like a standing stone on the horizon.
This cross dates from 1913.
The standing stone nearest to us is just a wee one, perhaps only the top half of the pillar that once stood here on in the dunes.
There's one thing I do know. This spot doesn't feel Christian at all.
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