The Cross of Cong

The Cross of Cong is one of the great treasures in the National Museum of Ireland. It is one of the finest pieces of Irish religious metalwork and decorative art from the twelfth century in existence. The Cross of Cong was commissioned around 1123 by Turlough Mór O’Conor, King of Connacht and High King of Ireland (d.1156), as a processional cross reliquary to hold a relic of the True Cross, which he had received from Rome. The cross was made in Roscommon, with the intention of donating it to the Cathedral in Tuam, but it was later given to the care of the monks in the Augustinian Abbey at Cong, County Mayo, hence the name. It was kept in Cong Abbey for centuries and treated with great veneration for use on special church occasions. After the suppression of the abbey, the abbots moved to a house near the village, where the Cross of Cong was stored. The last abbot, Father Patrick Prendergast, who died in 1829, discovered the Cross of Cong in a chest in a local house and kept it in his possession. Father Michael Waldron became the first parish priest of Cong with no association with the Augustinians and inherited the house last used by the abbots. To his surprise, the house contained, among other things, the Cross of Cong. After a few years, Father Waldron sold the Cross of Cong to the mathematician James MacCullough of Trinity College, Dublin, for 100 guineas, which was used to repair the roof of the local Catholic Church. The Cross of Cong was presented to the Royal Irish Academy in 1839 by James MacCullough.

The relic of the True Cross, missing since before Father Prendergast discovered it, was mounted at the junction of the shaft and arms, beneath a piece of rock crystal, which enabled it to be seen. The cross was designed so that it could be carried mounted on a staff, or placed on the altar as required. A prayer is requested in an inscription for its maker, Máol Ísu mac Bratáin Uí Echach.

Father Waldon’s successor as parish priest of Cong in 1869 was Father Patrick Lavelle, a strong nationalist, who soon realised that the local people did not approve of their famous cross leaving the area. Fr Lavelle shared their sentiments. One day, he went to the museum of the Royal Irish Academy. After smashing a glass case, he took the Cross of Cong, placed it under his cassock and walked out. He was soon surrounded in the street and, after protracted negotiations, the Cross of Cong was handed back to the museum. Around 1890, the Cross of Cong was transferred to the new National Museum of Science and Art, Kildare Street, Dublin, which became the National Museum of Ireland in 1925. It is now one of its great treasures.

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