Provenance
Discovery: Macalister (1945, 163) cites Petrie (1845, 136) as the first recording of the stone in 1845. The stone was found at Teampall Geal early ecclesiastical site in the townland of Ballymorereagh and barony of Corkaguiney.
Findspot: Ballymorereagh (An Baile Riabhach), Co. Kerry, Ireland (ITM coordinates: 440472, 602847)
Last recorded location(s): In situ, in front of the oratory at Teampall Geal, secured within a metal fence and standing on a platform of concrete.
Support
National Monuments Service SMR ID: KE043-140008-
Object type: Pillar
Dimensions: H 1.68 (or 1.75 (Okasha and Forsyth 2001, 138)) × W 0.46 × D 0.28 m
Condition: ‘The top has been broken and battered away… So far as it goes the inscription is perfectly clear, though some of the vowels are damaged’ (Macalister 1945, 163).
Inscription
Text field: Two equal-armed crosses, one with an expanded, sub-triangular head? ‘A cross with equal arms, expanding regularly, is cut on the face, on the dexter side of the inscription, while another cross, with expanding terminals…is cut on the surface of the opposite face’ (Macalister 1945, 163-164). Macalister (1945, 163-164) sees the crosses on this stone as a later attempt at Christianisation but see McManus (1991, 54-61) for a valid counter argument to this theory.
Letters: The ogham inscription appears to be v-cut in neat, evenly-spaced strokes with clear seperation of characters (particularly vowels in this case). Vowels are shorter but similarily executed to consonants. Macalister (1945, 163-164) notes that ‘a grafitto is scratched in a line parallel with the ogham in crudely made half-unicals. It reads FECT QUENILOC followed by a word too defaced to read’. No trace of this can be found. Regarding the C of MUC[OI], three of the four scores are visible on the 3D model.
Edition
Transcription: QENỊLOCI MAQI MAQI-AINIA MUC̣[OI]
Translation
of Cellach son of Mac-Áine? descendant of?
Commentary
QENN- (OIr cenn `head’): … QENILOCI (Cellach) (McManus 1991, 103).
It is tempting to equate the name MAQI-AINIA with the goddess Áine but, as McManus (1991, 109, 115, 179 n. 47) points out, ‘if so AI must be an error for A as the first syllable does not contain the diphthong ai’ and palatalisation is not written in ogham.
The retention of the -I in QENILOCI in combination with the loss of -S in MAQI-AINIA suggests dating this inscription to the first half of the sixth century (McManus 1991, 95, 97).
References
- Bennett, Uí Shíthigh, Holden, and Ó Bric 1995, 13
- Cuppage 1986, 268-270
- Macalister 1937, 221-228
- Macalister 1945, 163
- McManus 1991, 95, 103, 109, 115, 118
- Okasha and Forsyth 2001, 138