I was wondering if somehow either :  the RAID device somehow makes the
drive unbootable or somehow I've failed to successfully install lilo
on the disk.

Here's my lilo.conf (it's a Mandrake system):

boot=/dev/hde
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
vga=normal
default=linux-smp
keytable=/boot/us.klt
lba32
prompt
nowarn
timeout=100
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
disk=/dev/hde bios=0x80
image=/boot/vmlinuz
	label=linux
	root=/dev/hde1
	initrd=/boot/initrd.img
	append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi"
	read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-smp
	label=linux-smp
	root=/dev/hde1
	initrd=/boot/initrd-smp.img
	append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi"
	read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-smp
	label=linux-smp-old
	root=/dev/hde1
	initrd=/boot/initrd-smp.img
	append="devfs=mount hdd=ide-scsi"
	read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-enterprise
	label=linux-enterpris
	root=/dev/hde1
	initrd=/boot/initrd-enterprise.img
	append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi"
	read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
	label=failsafe
	root=/dev/hde1
	initrd=/boot/initrd.img
	append="failsafe devfs=nomount hdc=ide-scsi"
	read-only
other=/dev/fd0
	label=floppy
	unsafe

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-6mdksecure
	label=2418-6sec
	root=/dev/hde1
	read-only
	optional
	vga=normal
	append=" initrd=initrd.img"
	initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.18-6mdksecure.img