406 Mr. PETKIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



" OR t)o muiRet)ach cas i Nt>eraNal> IN chrcossa." 



" A PRAYEE FOE MUIEEDACH BY WHOM WAS MADE THIS CEOSS." 

 If then we find that there was an abbot of this name, Muiredach, at Monas- 

 terboice, the natural inference will be, that he was the erector of this cross ; 

 but unfortunately we learn, from the Irish Annals, that there were two of the 

 name, one who died in the year 844, and the other in the year 924, so that it 

 must be a matter of some uncertainty, to which of these the erection of the 

 cross should be ascribed. This is a difficulty, however, which, to my mind, is 

 greatly decreased by the nature of the entries respecting those persons, in the 

 Annals, and from which it clearly appears that the latter of these Muiredachs was 

 a man of much greater distinction, and probably wealth, than the former, and 

 therefore more likely to have been the erector of the crosses at Monasterboice, 

 and, as I conceive, their cotemporaneous Tower. Thus, in the Annals of 

 Ulster, the death of the first Muiredach is entered simply as follows : 



" A. D. 844. ITlupe&ach, mac plainn, abbap TTloniprpech 6uiri mopcuup epc." 

 " A. D. 844. Muiredach, son of Flann, abbot of Monaster Buiti, died." 



While the death of the second is thus entered : 



" A. D. 923, vel 924. ITlupeoach mac tDomnuill, canupe ab Qipo macha, 7 apo maep Oa 

 Neill in oepceipc, 7 comapba ftuici, mtc &ponai, cenn aocomaipc pep m-6pej n-uile, ocaib, 

 cleipchib, quinca Die Kal t)ecembpip uica oeceppic." 



"A. D. 923, or 924. Muiredach, son of Domhnall, tanist-abbot of Armagh, and chief Stewart 

 of the southern Hy Niall, and successor of Buiti, the son of Bronach, head of the council of all the 

 men of Bregia, laity and clergy, departed this life on the fifth day of the Calends of December." 



The death of this Muiredach is similarly entered in the Annals of the Four 

 Masters, except that they call him " the Stewart of the people of Patrick (Ar- 

 magh), from Sliabh Fuaid to Leinster." 



Moreover, the close resemblance between the subjects of the sculptures on 

 this cross, and the style of their execution, to those of the great cross at Clon- 

 macnoise, which I have shown to be of the early part of the tenth century, 

 strongly corroborates the inference, as to its date, which I have drawn from the 

 preceding historical notices. 



It is to this period, also, that I would ascribe the erection of the neighbour- 

 ing Round Tower of Donaghmore, in the County of Meath, the doorway of 

 which is so remarkable in having a figure of our Saviour crucified sculptured 



