Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2006, Page 50

Steffen Stummann Hansen and John Sheehan
Figure 14. Crosses with chi-rho motifs from the ogham stones atArraglen
and Killeenleagh, both Co. Kerry.
about one of these two islands, perhaps
even focused on the Ólansgarður site
on Skúvoy, which reflected the former
presence of an Irish, pre-Viking, Chris-
tian community there and later came to
be subsumed into the Saga of the Faroe
Islandersl Is this the explanation of the
reference to Skúvoy/Stóra Dímun as the
Faroe Islands’ first Christian centre?
Clearly, Skúvoy and its slabs
merit a great deal of further work, the
results of which may allow the placement
of the origins of the Leirvík Bonhústoftin
and related sites in an early, pre-Viking
Irish context.
An alternative scenario?
An alternative explanation for the ulti-
mate Irish background of the Leirvík
fíonhústoftin may be sought in the rela-
tionships that existed between Ireland
and the North Atlantic period during the
Viking Age, rather than during the pre-
Viking period. There is clear archaeologi-
cal evidence for connections between the
Hiberno-Scandinavian settlements in Ire-
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