THE National Museum of Ireland is to display 21 penal crosses made over one and a half centuries for pilgrims to St Patrick’s Purgatory on Lough Derg in Co Donegal.
The crosses are being brought out of the museum’s storage facilities and will go on display at its Country Life facility, Turlough Park, Castlebar in Co Mayo. The display is part of a year-old programme marking the Castlebar facility’s 21st anniversary.
Keeper of the museum’s Irish folk life collection, Clodagh Doyle said while described as penal crosses, they artefacts could be called “Lough Derg crucifixes”. Ms Doyle said the crosses ranged in age from the early 18th century to the middle of the 19th century and were often described as Irish folk art.
The museum official said the artefacts were likely carved and sold to pilgrims attending the world-famous retreat island at Lough Derg. Dates carved onto the crosses showed the year a pilgrimage was undertaken.
“Although mistakenly thought to be associated with the Penal Law era, penal crosses was the term used in folk tradition. Today, due to research by AT Lucas, we could call them Lough Derg crucifixes but we continue to use the term penal crosses,” Ms Doyle said.
She said the crosses were found in what she described as “an Aladdin’s Cave of treasures” in the National Museum’s storage faciliites.
One of the best known pilgrimage sites in Ireland, St Patrick’s Purgatory still draws thousands of pilgrims annually. Pilgrims abstain from food and sleep and complete prayers while walking around penitential “beds” barefoot.
Ms Doyle said the Co Donegal retreat island was as internationally popular in Europe in medieval times as the Spanish city of Santiago de Comopostela (culmination of the Camino pilgrimage) was in the present day.
