placenamesCross
An Chrois
A nineteenth-century school and church, with a much older thatched house nearby, give Cross a visible history in stone and timber.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- An Chrois · Irish · main form · validated name
- Cross · English · main form
Place & story
A school dating from 1854
Saint Feichín’s National School traces its opening to 1854. The school says that its original building remains in use, alongside later extensions and refurbishments. That survival gives the village a direct connection with the growth of rural primary education in the nineteenth century. The school belongs to the parish of Cong, Cross and The Neale. [2]
Sacred Heart Church
The Church of the Sacred Heart was completed in 1890 under Father James A. Hennelly. Its rectangular body and projecting entrance porch are built in limestone, with narrow pointed windows and buttresses at the corners. Inside, stained glass depicts the Seven Sacraments. The sanctuary was rearranged in 1987, so the building brings together its late Victorian exterior and changes made after the Second Vatican Council. [3]
Garracloon Lodge nearby
Nearby at Dowagh East, Garracloon Lodge is a thatched farmhouse which the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage dates to 1728. Its curved entrance porch has an elaborate limestone doorway, while a taller rear wing carries a slate roof. The inventory records surviving interior shutters, fireplaces and decorative plasterwork, and links the property with the Blake family. Taylor and Skinner’s road atlas of 1778 identified it as the home of a Blake esquire. The house illustrates how an apparently modest thatched exterior could shelter a substantial, carefully finished home. [4]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Cross. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Saint Feichín’s National School: principal’s message · Saint Feichín’s National School
- Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart, Dowagh West, Cross: 31312118 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Garracloon Lodge, Dowagh East, Cross: 31312115 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.