The Cross of Cong returns to Mayo for first time in 170 years.

The Cross will be on display in the National Museum of Ireland - Country Life, Turlough Park, Castlebar, from Wednesday, 31st March 2010. The Cross of Cong is one of Ireland's greatest treasures. It was made in 1123 to encase a fragment of the True Cross that was brought to Ireland and displayed in different places around the country. The medieval Annals of Tigernach record that Tairdelbach Ua Chonchobair (Turlough O'Conor), king of Connacht and high king of Ireland, asked for part of the Cross to be kept in Ireland. On his instructions, a shrine was made in Roscommon to house the fragment - long since lost. That shrine is the Cross of Cong.