Celtic cross

The shape, usually decorated with interlace and other motifs from Insular art, became popular for funerary monuments and other uses, and has remained so, spreading well beyond Ireland.

Ringed crosses similar to older Continental forms appeared in Ireland, England and Scotland in incised stone slab artwork and artifacts like the Ardagh chalice.

However, the shape achieved its greatest popularity by its use in the monumental stone high crosses, a distinctive and widespread form of Insular art.

Others have seen it as deriving from indigenous Bronze Age art featuring a wheel or disc around a head, or from early Coptic crosses based on the ankh.

The first examples date to about the ninth century and occur in two groups: at Ahenny in Ireland, and at Iona, an Irish monastery off the Scottish coast.

Standing crosses in Ireland and areas under Irish influence tend to be shorter and more massive than their Anglo-Saxon equivalents, which have mostly lost their headpieces.

[7] Since its revival in the 1850s, the Celtic cross has been used extensively as grave markers, straying from medieval usage, when the symbol was typically used for a public monument.

Both the Gaelic Athletic Association and the Northern Ireland national football team have used versions of the Celtic cross in their logos and advertising.

[9] It is suggested that adoption of the symbol in the context of right-wing politics is linked with the activity of Jesuit priest Paul Doncœur [fr], a prominent figure of the interwar scout movement in France.

[10][11] In 1924, the victory of anti-clerical Cartel des Gauches in general elections caused the mobilisation of right-wing forces, with Doncœur playing a major role in formation of Fédération Nationale Catholique[12] and Ligue DRAC [fr].

[13] The same year, impressed by Quickborn [de], a Catholic organisation within the German Youth Movement, he founded its local equivalent, Cadets.

[16][17][18] After the Fall of France, Vichy government relied on pre-existing organisations to implement its youth policy according to the principles of the National Revolution.