Muiredeach's Cross at Monaster-boice has more surprises.
There is a strip of heads entwined with very Continental lion- or cat-headed snakes (right), suggesting some strangulation of the soul by evil. Above them, right under the South arm of the cross, are two Pictish-looking lying or fighting lions.
Snakes (never part of the Irish fauna) also form a knot, together with spheres, on one face.

Interlace has always been a very popular design throughout the world but especially in Romanesque Europe. "Green Men" often sprout or spew interlaces of foliage, and foliage-interlace often symbolises the snares of base or animal desires.

There are plenty of examples on Pictish stones, and on Irish crosses, as at Tihilly (right), where the interlace is of beasts.

And what are we to make of the wonderfully-carved figure below, on the "Cross of the Scriptures" at Clonmacnois, featuring a shepherd playing pan-pipes, with cats at his feet and a cat licking itself ? Is it David the shepherd with lions prefiguring his ascent from bully-boy war-lord to monarch ?

Even more enigmatic is a sad figure on the North cross at Castledermot which is reminiscent of the bound Loki of Scandinavian myth or the Bound Satan of the Beatus manuscripts. His profile recalls "The Bishop's Stone" at Killadeas in Fermanagh. Does he represent Satan conquered or the sins of the world ? Why is he holding his legs ?

Other processions are less surprising, but nonetheless puzzling - such as this apparent hunting procession on the base of the Tower Cross at Kells.
In mediæval Christianity the hunted stag represented Christ...

The Kells crosses have strong affinities with Pictish stones.

Horses feature also on the cross-base at Denn Glebe.

At Ahenny, on the opposite side to the headless-corpse procession, there is what seems to be almost a zoo scene (below right) which might be the herding of creatures towards Noah's Ark. But is more likely to be Adam (beneath the Tree of Wisdom) amongst the Beasts of the Garden of Eden, a scene which occurs in Romanesque contexts elsewhere, notably the cathedral tapestry at Girona in Catalonia.

On a third side of the Ahenny North Cross is what Peter Harbison interprets as Christ's mission to the Apostles - or an abbot with monks bearing croziers - which are not to be confused with Cain's cudgel, graphically shown (below) on the cross-shaft at Connor. The enigma here is who the third person may be.

At Clogher there is a cross-shaped sundial (the back of which has a human figure) bearing familiar types of interlace - and a salmon. The salmon is one of the most important of magical beasts in Irish mythology: it symbolised knowledge and wisdom and was associated with the river Boyne. It also occurs on Pictish stones.

The Clogher sundial may be saying that both time and Christianity are wisdom.

In Ireland and Pictland, as also in Romanesque art in general (especially in far-flung and rustic locations) the iconology (meaning) seems unnecessarily obscure to us. At Roscrea, for example, the stag might represent Christ as sacrificed ruler of Creation, while the eagle-headed lion represents the triumph of Christianity.

This apparently-puzzling scene on the cross at Old Kilcullen recalls the fragments at Moone (previous page), but is not static - it seems to represent a scene. It is David wrestling the lion - underneath which is a sheep!

As enigmatic as the motif with flanking beasts is that of wrestling or embracing figures. These might represent Jacob and the Angel or perhaps David embracing Absalom...either is possible. At Durrow (right) is either the Flight into Egypt (no room for the donkey) or Elizabeth carrying the infant John the Baptist with Zacharias indicating his dumbness, and below it, two wrestling or embracing figures which Peter Harbison suggests may be John the Baptist embracing Jesus in the Desert.

On the base of the South Cross at Castledermot (below), two figures seem to be pulling or holding an object: can it be the Judgment of Solomon without the King...? Peter Harbison, however, suggests The Kiss of Judas (as at Ardane, above).

On the Market Cross at Kells, the two figures are not kissing, though they might be embracing (David and Absalom ?... SS Paul the Hermit and Anthony ? ... Jesus and John the Baptist ?) Or are they wrestling (Jacob and the Angel) ?

...while at Lackagh in Tyrone is a fragment
with similar embracers - locally thought to be
a gravestone for Siamese Twins.

By the time the last crosses in the series were erected, Ireland, like Europe, had left the comparative innocence of the Romanesque Era, with its emphasis on personal sin and redemption. In Europe, the very success of the monastic orders, especially the art-and-symbol-loving Benedictines, led to their decline in favour of cities and their bishops. Catholicism and its obsession with hierarchy, especially bishops, penetrated Ireland, largely due to St Malachy, and, later, to the Norman incursions from Wales which ended up as a hiccuping invasion of the Eastern seaboard of Ireland. This was 'justified' by the curious fact that Ireland was the only country in the history of Christendom to have had no martyrs, no recorded resistance to Christianity - but a plethora of dodgy saints such as Declan who floated from Wales to south-eastern Ireland on his tombstone, and Kevin who allowed a blackbird to build a nest and hatch out chicks in his outstretched hand.

And so the last 'High' Crosses of Ireland portrayed bishops - here, at Kilfenora (right) smugly overseeing the conquering of sin or heresy by two other ecclesiastics (with Tau-cross and crozier) in a strange scene of vengeance which still shows affinities with Pictish carvings, long after Pictland ceased to exist politically.

On the other side of this cross, Christ may be riding side-saddle to interlacing, ribbony glory (depicted on the head) above the rooves of Jerusalem, leaving Ireland (and Pictland) far behind.