326 
Ir was Resotvep,—That the Treasurer be authorized 
to sell off stock of the Academy to the amount of £400, if 
so much be thought necessary by Council. 
Professor Mac Cullagh presented and described to the 
Academy an ancient Irish Cross, which formerly belonged to 
the abbey of Cong, in the province of Connaught. It isa 
most interesting memorial of the period preceding the Eng- 
lish invasion, and shows a very high state of art in the 
country at the time when it was made, which was the early 
part of the twelfth century, in the reign of Therdelach Ua 
Conchovar, (or Turlogh O’Conor,) father of Roderick, the 
last of the native kings of Ireland. This date is supplied by 
the Gaelic inscriptions, extremely clear and well cut, which 
cover the silver edges of the cross, and which, besides giving 
the names of the king and of contemporary dignitaries of the 
church, preserve that of the artist himself, who was an Irish- 
man. A Latin inscription informs us that it contains a pre- 
cious relic—a portion of the wood of the “ true cross ;” and 
this circumstance will account for the veneration in which it 
has been held for ages, though, unfortunately, it was not 
sufficient to protect it from injury, much of the ornamental 
work having been removed, and part of the inscriptions torn 
away. Notwithstanding these depredations, however, it is 
still a splendid monument of ecclesiastical antiquity. 
* In the centre of the arms, at their junction with the shaft, 
there is fixed a cruciform piece of oak, marked with the 
figure of a cross, and much older, apparently, than the rest 
of the wood, which is oak also. This piece bears marks 
of the knife, as if it had been taken for the relic; though 
it is perhaps too large to be so, and, besides, it does not 
appear that the true cross was made of oak. Hereabouts, 
however, the relic certainly was; for the place is sur- 
mounted by a very conspicuous crystal of quartz—a mode 
