Irish Druids And Old Irish Religions

Eugene Hucher, in L'Art Gaulois, has some remarkable illustrations of the cross among a kindred people to the Irish across the Channel. It is there associated with the pig, lion, serpent, eagle, winged horse, bird, chariot, pig under a horse, fleur-de-lis, &c. The Gaulish coins have the cross frequently impressed on them.

Some Irish crosses are distinguished by the Buddhist symbol in all sorts of positions. The Triple Tau of India is equally manifest. The Thor's-hammer cross is very common among other Pre-Christian crosses. Fosbroke affirms that there are twenty-two instances of the cross on Ogham stones, but none on the fifty-three inscribed stones in Rath chambers. It is his opinion that "stone crosses owe their origin to marking Druid stones with crosses, in order to change the worship without breaking the prejudice."

The Irish cross within a circle has been seen not only in the far East, but in the Indian Mounds of Ohio. The Druid's Cross is fully acknowledged in the Two Babylons of the Rev. A. Hislop. The form of the Philistine Dagon is detected in the sculptured mermaid on Meath's cross, and at Clontarf cathedral; where the fish-woman has a forked tail. The Tau, mentioned in Ezek. ix. 4, is declared by St. Jerome to have been a cross.

The base of the cross at Kells, Co. Meath, has the figure of a centaur with the trident, another centaur behind armed with a bow and arrows, birds, fishes, and a sacred hare. The sandstone cross of Arboe, by Lough Neagh, 20 feet high, is covered with men and horses, trees and serpents. That of Monasterboice, 23 feet in height, has figures on the panels. Brash has interesting records of the sculptured crosses of Ireland. He describes those of Kilkenny and Clonmel, of sandstone, having in the centre of One, coiled around the boss, four serpents. On the panel of

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