⁵²Schot, R. (2011). From Cult Centre to Royal Centre: Monuments, Myths and Other Revelations at Uisneach. In C. Newman, E. Bhreathnach, R. Schot (Authors), Landscapes of cult and kingship (p. 96-7). Four Courts.
Schot writes, "... the stone [was] called umbilicus Hibernie, the ‘navel of Ireland’, by Giraldus Cambrensis, and earlier still described as the meeting point of the five ancient provinces. This stone, which is said to have been divided into five by the points of the provinces running towards it."
And (on p. 93), "Yet, the perception of Uisneach as the centre-point of Ireland could just as well be based on an older tradition that places far greater emphasis on its role as the centre of the cosmos, an axis mundi. It is this concept of centrality that is most pervasive in the early literature, with Uisneach consistently portrayed as a place of origins and beginnings, linked to the Otherworld; as a place where druidic and other divinely inspired judgments and proclamations are made, particularly regarding the cosmological divisions of the island; as a place of assembly, with traditions of a fire-cult; and as the site of an omphalic stone, a mystical well and a sacred tree."
Macalister wrote about the stone: "The separation of Meath as an independent provincial kingdom is prehistoric in its antiquity; and no provincial divisions conceivable could at any time have met all together at [the Stone of the Divisions]...it is not surprising that in time these imaginary geometrical co-ordinates became confused with the actual provincial divisions which were familiar to everyone." (Macalister, R. A. S., and R. Lloyd Praeger. “Report on the Excavation of Uisneach.” Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature 38 (1928): 80 http://www.jstor.org/stable/25515935.)