This text provides a comprehensive look at the magnificent high crosses of Ireland, which belong to a period stretching from the seventh to the twelfth centuries. Fortunately, the crosses have survived the ravages of time and remain a living part of the Irish landscape, reminding us of a time when Christianity was the main driving force behind patronage of the arts. The most remarkable and attractive of all the monuments dotted around the Irish countryside, they are also of international importance in early medieval art. They were carved at a time in western Europe when there was little opportunity to commission or produce work of a monumental character; indeed the crosses of Ireland and Britain are virtually the only elaborate free-standing monuments of the early Middle Ages in all of the west of Europe.