An 18th Century Irish carved fruitwood 'Penal Cross', of traditional form under suspension loop, with narrow cross arm, carved with figure of the crucified Christ in high relief flanked by incised...

An 18th Century Irish carved fruitwood 'Penal Cross', of traditional form under suspension loop, with narrow cross arm, carved with figure of the crucified Christ in high relief flanked by incised ladder and spear, the reverse decorated with 'IHS' across transom with cross rising from the bar of 'H', dated 1749 and with symbols depicting the Passion - hammer and pincers, nails, loaves and fishes, and 'cock over pot' - all traditional iconography. 21.6 cm long, 6.4 cm wide Provenance : Edward O'Cullen, one time Editor of The Wexford People and Ireland's Own. Thence by family descent to the current owner. Literature : Ireland's Own, April 1906, 'In Grandmother's Parlour - Forty Years Ago' , Edward O'Cullen wrote : ''In one of (Grandmother's) bedrooms hung a quaint old wooden crucifix of rude workmanship, on the back of which were carved the emblems of the Passion, the loaves and fishes, and other Scriptural devices. It bears date of 1749 - (I still retain it, with other old family relics)- and belonged to grandmother's grandmother who, by the way, was an O'Rourke of Breffni - the same old family that afterwards gave us Edmund O'Rourke, the dramatist and poet, and author of one of our country's most popular songs, ''Killarney''. ''?..Grandmother's old wooden crucifix was a relic of one of the worst periods of the penal times. The family was, I need hardly add, intensely Catholic as well as intensely Irish.'' Penal crosses take their name from a series of laws passed to suppress the Catholic population in Ireland and which were put into force in the late 16th Century onwards. The intended effect of the Penal laws was to diminish the power and influence of the Irish Catholics and to reduce dramatically their property holdings. According to the National Museum of Ireland, many of these crosses originated in the vicinity of St. Patrick's Purgatory in Lough Derg, Co. Donegal and are likely to have been produced as devotional souvenirs for pilgrims. It is thought that they were produced by local people and dated the year they were made as in the present case, 1749.

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