MADR2/1

See also Macalister/1949, 179, and Thomas/1994, 290.

Thomas/1994, 290: `fine whitish granite'.

Thomas/1994, 290 describes the stone as a `tall slab'.

From Okasha's photograph (Fig. II.32) and the drawing in Thomas/1994, 291, Fig. 17.13, the stone appears to have a curved bottom end which is decorated. Either this end of the stone is incomplete, or it was never intended to be set upright on this end.

Macalister/1949, 179: `This inscription is capped with a cross of very peculiar form, the top of which was trimmed off by the masons. Some random lines on the face of the stone seem to be attempts at decoration by the writer'.

Thomas/1994, 290--91, Fig. 17.13: `The entire face of the thin slab, over six feet long, is ornamented...There are motifs top-and-bottom, a near-complete cartouche, transverse incised lines and various long wavering surface fissures...There is a small panel with three vertical lines at the base, and at the top there is a `paddle-armed' cross standing on a line with looped terminals. a motif that by this time (first half of the seventh century) no longer shows its origin in the chi-rho cross with linear base'.

Thomas/1994, 290, discusses Macalister's reading and suggests it was a late attempt in poor light and the results are unreliable. Thomas goes on (290--91) to discuss the inscription claiming that the first line reads VIR which if correct is unique in insular inscriptions, and means `husband', or even `my husband' and that a widow has comissioned the memorial. The second name is British (see name table).

Thomas/1994, 291, goes on to say `the first name [is] quite legibly QONFAL. The question is what the scriptor or ordinator wanted to convey. If he still knew the convention that medial C (as in Uennorcit) had to be used for /g/, albeit by now lenited, he may have selected Q on its own to represent /k/. What seems the likely answer is that his F -- instead of V (for /w/) or M (for /m/) -- stands for lenited M, /[mu]/, and that though the A misrepresents a diphthong or lengthened vowel the name is actually Conmael (< *Cuno-maglos)'.

Okasha/1993, 179: `it is not...certain what script was used. The letters, 7 to 10 cm. in height, read downwards facing left'.

Thomas/1994, 290: `The lettering is almost all there, but much of it is cut fairly lightly...The memorial starts with a small superscript VIR...In FILIV(S the v is inverted and the s is now barely detectable; in the lower second name, the N's are also reversed, OR is an odd ligature (like capital C and script R) and the final IT is crammed together'.

Okasha/1993, 179: `The text is probably complete but much of it is now highly deteriorated; it is not even certain what script is used'.

Thomas/1994, 290: `The text is almost all there'.