Early Penal Cross
This early Penal Cross made a hammer price of €2,900 over a top estimate of €1,200 at Usher Auctions sale in Kells on July 7. Irish Penal Crosses are a survival from the 18th and early 19th centuries when religious practice for catholics was forbidden by the Penal Laws. These devotional objects were often carried by people at a time when public displays of catholicism was suppressed and catholic mass was held in secret. The small size of the cross meant that it could be carried by a priest up his sleeve.
