Lying at Europe's remote western edge, Ireland long has been seen as having an artistic heritage that owes little to influences beyond its borders. This publication, the first to focus on Irish art from the eighth century AD to the end of the sixteenth century, challenges the idea that the best-known Irish monuments of that period-the high crosses, the Book of Kells, the Tara Brooch, the round towers-reflect isolated, insular traditions. Seventeen essays examine the iconography, history, and structure of these familiar works, as well as a number of previously unpublished pieces, and demonstrate that they do have a place in the main currents of European art. While this book reveals unexpected links between Ireland, Late-Antique Italy, the Byzantine Empire, and the Anglo-Saxons, its center is always the artistic culture of Ireland itself. It includes new research on the Sheela-na-gigs, often thought to be merely erotic sculptures; on the larger cultural meanings of the Tuam Market Cross and its nineteenth-century re-erection; and on late-medieval Irish stone crosses and metalwork. The emphasis on later monuments makes this one of the first volumes to deal with Irish art after the Norman invasion. The contributors are Cormac Bourke, Mildred Budny, Tessa Garton, Peter Harbison, Jane Hawkes, Colum Hourihane, Catherine E. Karkov, Heather King, Susanne McNab, Raghnall Floinn, Emmanuelle Pirotte, Roger Stalley, Kees Veelenturf, Dorothy Hoogland Verkerk, Niamh Whitfield, Maggie McEnchroe Williams, and Susan Youngs.

This thesis, for the first time, provides an in-depth analysis of the Cross of Cong and the corpus of Church metalwork from Romanesque Ireland that it belongs to. Its modern and medieval history is explored, in particular the role that the Cross played in the career of Turlough O{u2019}Connor and the establishment of an archdiocese for Connacht at Tuam. The Cross of Cong is fully described and illustrated and a detailed, descriptive, historical, and illustrated catalogue of the corpus is provided. An important argument on the status of goldsmiths in the period is made, before detailed discussion on the sources of raw materials, as well as the construction methods and decorative techniques that the corpus displays. Examination of the decoration on the Cross shows it to be largely influenced by native and Scandinavian styles. It is also linked stylistically with the market cross at Tuam and the Corpus Missal, which appear to have been produced in the same cultural, religious, and political context. There is also discussion on the original function of the Cross of Cong and the surviving corpus of Church metalwork, which is based on research of medieval sources, as well as nineteenth-century folklore. The symbolism of the Cross of Cong and the symbolism and iconography of other pieces in the corpus are also examined. On the basis of the surviving evidence, the workshop that produced the Cross seems to have been particularly active, as well as accomplished, and a number of pieces in the corpus, on stylistic and technical grounds, are attributable to it, and more seemingly influenced by it. Finally, conclusions are made, not only on the historical significance of the Cross of Cong, but also on the identity of the society that made and used it.