The cross comes from Cong (Cunga in Irish, meaning a neck or narrow place) in Co Mayo in Ireland’s north west and was made at the request of Turlough O’Connor, King of Ireland.

It was Turlough who extended Cong’s old Augustinian Abbey that had been founded by St Feichen in AD 623. The last High King of Ireland, Roderick O’Connor, died in Cong in 1199 and was buried under the high altar.