The National Museum is to transfer the Cross of Cong from its Kildare Street Museum of Archaeology to its Museum of Country Life in Castlebar.
The display will be officially unveiled at the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life, Turlough Park, Castlebar, by the National Museum’s director Dr Patrick Wallace at 3pm on Tuesday March 30.
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 Tairdelbach Ua Chonchobair (Turlough O’Connor ), king of Connacht and high king of Ireland, asked for part of the Cross to be kept in Ireland. On his instructions, a shrine was made in Roscommon to house the fragment - long since lost. That shrine is the Cross of Cong.
During preparation work on the Cross of Cong to enable it to travel to the Museum of Country Life at Turlough Park, new discoveries about the Cross have been made. These will be announced by the museum’s director at the unveiling of Cross in Turlough Park.
