The Cross of Muiredeach at Monasterboice in Co. Louth is one of the most beautiful of the Irish High Crosses still standing. At the base of the West side can still be seen the inscription in old Irish ‘OR DO MUIREDEACH LASNDERNAD IN CHROS’ which translates as ‘A prayer for Muiredeach, for whom this cross was made’. Most scholars think that this applied to Muiredeach, son of Domhaill, an abbot of Monasterboice who died around AD 922. The main sculpture on the circular head on the West face is an elaborate Crucifixion scene while on the East faces there is an even more interesting and elaborate depiction of the Last Judgment. The face of the shaft on the West side shows incidents in the life of Our Lord, incidents from the Old Testament, stories from the lives of the Saints and symbolic figures. The scenes on the shaft of the cross are read from the bottom up. They appear to represent Christ seized in the Garden; ‘Doubting Thomas’ thrusting his hand into Our Lord’s side; and Christ seated between Peter and Paul, giving the keys to the one and the Book of the Gospel to the other. Henry Morris suggested a more colorful interpretation - the bottom panel depicts two Viking soldiers roughly seizing a central figure the Celtic Abbot. In the panel above the same two mustached ‘Vikings’ are shown wearing ecclesiastical robes, while the central figure, clean shaven and with a coronal tonsure as before, has his hand raised in blessing. In the top panel all three ecclesiastics have Viking moustaches, and they hold the Keys and the Book of Gospels. This is the story of the encounter of the Abbot with the Viking invaders; their conversion in time to Christianity and acceptance as monks at Monasterboice, and finally a time when a Viking becomes the Abbot of the monastery. There is some historical support for this theory. One of the first permanent Viking settlements, a fortified stronghold, was made eight miles from Monasterboice at Annagassan on the Louth coast in AD 840. It is recorded that from here the Vikings plundered Clonmacnoise in the west in 841 and Armagh in the North in 850. Yet Monasterboice, a couple of hours march away, was never plundered by them. They remained at Annagassan until 925 and must have had contact with the monastery. If some became Christians and Monks, this could explain Monasterboice’s immunity from attack.

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