Flann’s Stone

Other confirmation that there were Flanns in Ireland from very early times is what is known as “Flanns Stone” on Iona in the Scottish Hebrides seen by Marjorie in 1991. Iona is a small island off the coast of Mull, where St Columba (521-597) landed from Ireland as a Celtic missionary and founded an abbey. In an adjoining museum is a large broken slab of stone. A notice states:

Flann’s Stone This stone was for long part of the paving in front of St Columbas’ shrine, and so is badly broken. A winged cross with two vertical inscriptions, on either side, both meaning “ A prayer for the soul of Flann.

An Abbott Flann died in 891, but whether it is for this Flann or another is not known. But the point is that this is another explicit confirmation of the early Irish use of the name.