'Muiredeach's Cross', Monasterboice (Louth)


The enigmatic splay-legged figure between Satan and the sinners being kicked into Hell - unique on Irish crosses -
has been plausibly linked with the Luxuria motif and sheela-na-gigs.

This shamefully-weathered proto-Romanesque cross is a marvel of eclecticism, and, like most Irish Scripture Crosses,
has several puzzling carvings.
Bottom left is the Archangel Michæl weighing the souls of the recently-dead above a bonfire, while above him
Christ in Glory recalls
Egyptian representations of Osiris as King of the Dead. Between him and the cloaked
figure of Satan is a piper on a chair or throne - probably King David.

Compare with figures on crosses at Kilmainham and Clonmacnois.