When the abbey at Cong was in its heyday, the Lord Abbot would go out in procession to meet a funeral cortege on the outskirts of the village and then walk in front of it carrying the famous 12th century Cross-of Cong, until it arrived at the church. That custom continued until 1542, when the abbey was suppressed during the Reformation. As the monks were leaving the village, it is said that they met a funeral, and the Lord Abbot, Aongus McDonnell, stopped the funeral and fashioned a small cross out of twigs, He placed the cross on the roadside and led the people in a prayer for the dead. He then asked that the ceremony be performed whenever there was a funeral, in memory of the day. The custom is dying out now, but was faithfully performed up until the 1980’s. The custom of the Cresheens, peculiar to Cong, was also carried out in a similar ceremony in Co. Wexford.

The photo shows the Cresheens - Croisiní or Little crosses at a monument on the Clonbur road. The monument itself is interesting, it is built of rough stone, and there is a carved plaque which commemorates two people who were killed in a family feud. It reads 'Pray for the soules of John Joyce and Mary Joyce his wife who dyed 6th August 1712' (sic). It seems that John Joyce was set upon and brutally beaten to death and his wife died of injuries received when she went to his rescue. Three young men, all brothers, were subsequently hanged in Ballinrobe jail for the crime.

Further reading: The Glory of Cong. J.A. Fahy pp 19-20 (1978).

The Corrib Country. Richard Hayward. Dundalk 1968 P.61.

The Joyce monument and the Cresheens on the Clonbur road.