Cross of Cong returns to Mayo

Cross of Cong returns to Mayo


A priceless piece of history comes home this week.
Edwin McGreal reports

One of the most precious historical artifacts in the country, the priceless Cross of Cong, is to return to Mayo today (Tuesday).
The twelfth century relic, purported at one stage to contain a fragment of the True Cross on which Jesus Christ perished, is to be put on display at the National Museum of Country Life at Turlough Park, Castlebar from this afternoon.
The National Museum is to transfer it from its Kildare Street Museum or Archaeology to Turlough Park and it will be the first time the Cross will return to Mayo since 1839.
Manager Keeper at Turlough House, Mr Tony Candon, admits that anticipation is reaching fever-pitch ahead of the arrival of the famous relic.
“We’re very excited about it. All through the last week the excitement has been growing. A lot of work and a lot of effort has gone into this. If this is not the top relic in the National Museum, it is in the top two or three. It would be up there with the Ardagh Chalice, I would have it ahead of the Ardagh Chalice personally,” he told The Mayo News.
“It is one of the premier treasures in Ireland. It has never been moved out of Kildare Street and a big reason for that is its fragility. Some years ago there was a world tour called Treasures of Ireland and the Cross of Cong was not included in that because of that fragility.
“How can you put a cost on it? The way I would put it is think of a telephone number, preferably an international one. But it is impossible to give it a monetary value. It is truly priceless,” concluded Mr Candon.
The Cross will be unveiled by the National Museum’s Director, Dr Patrick Wallace, at 3pm today. At the unveiling Dr Wallace will announce some new discoveries in relation to the Cross. These were discovered during recent work by the Museum’s Conservation Department as part of preparations for the move to Turlough Park.
The Cross is to be located on Level A of the Museum building. Admission is free and the Museum is open from Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm and on Sunday from 2pm to 5pm.

About the Cross of Cong
The Cross of Cong is one of Ireland’s greatest treasures. It was made in 1123 to encase a fragment of the True Cross that was brought to Ireland and displayed in different places.
The medieval Annals of Tigernach record that Turlough O’Connor, king of Connacht and high king of Ireland, asked for part of the True Cross to be kept in Ireland. On his instructions, a shrine - the Cross of Cong - was made in Roscommon to house the fragment, long since lost.
The Cross of Cong is a processional cross of the type carried before an archbishop in formal church ceremonies.
The shrine is called the Cross of Cong as it was kept in the Augustinian Friary in Cong for centuries.
The last Augustinian Abbot of Cong was Fr Patrick Prendergast. The Cross was among his possessions when he died in 1829. His successor, Fr Michael Waldron, sold the Cross to mathematician James MacCullagh for 100 guineas.  MacCullough gave it to the Royal Irish Academy in 1839.
The Cross of Cong was transferred to what is now the National Museum of Ireland in the 1880s.  This is the first time that the Cross has returned to Mayo since it was acquired by the Academy in 1839.