The Celts were the ancient inhabitants of much of Europe.  A spiritual people, their rich mythology and symbology later merged with the Christian beliefs they embraced to create a distictive art seen espcially in Ireland and Scotland.  The Irish Celtic Cross is known throughout the world as the emblem of Celtic Christianity and it can be considered the symbol of Celticness itself.  Celtic Crosses began to appear during he fifth century A.D., the Celtic crucifix shape is derived from a pagan sun symbol, the sunwheel, which later became a symbol of the Christian godhead.  The sunwheel was originally a cross surrounded by a circle with a center stone  representing the sun an mock suns at the four quarters.  The stone at the center of the circle also represents the navel of the world.  The stone pillar of the cross also embodies phallic and fertility characteristics.  The traditional Celtic cross represents eternal life; it's horizontal axis being the earthly world and the vertical axis the heavenly world coming together as the union of Heaven and Earth.  Celtic Crosses are imbued with continuous and interwoven knot and spiral motifs symbolizing the continuity of life, death and rebirth. Celtic Crosses often have images of the Christian cruxifiction, partriarchs and saints. 

Celtic Cross	Pictish Cross	Sun Cross
Cross of Muiradeach	Crucifix of Athlone	Gallen Priory Cross
Cross of Duplin	Cross of St. Patrick