W. F. Wakeman

“ To hollow out a log-canoe, and to make an artificial island with trunks of trees, branches, stones, and earth, were but stages, though greatly advanced ones, in the development of human intelligence from its low condition in the cave-dwellers and men of the river-drift. It is evident, however, that these artificial islands had been long used in Europe before they had been adopted in Ireland as dwelling-places. ”

“ We see in Newgrange a great advance in the architecture of sepulchres from the rude cromlechs of the Stone Age to the well-developed vaulted chamber, with its recesses, of the Bronze Period. But the principle of the rude passage-graves is maintained; and the desire to honour the dead under the most appropriate monument that art and skill could raise remains the same. Within the chamber and recesses the relics of the dead were most probably placed on the basins​—​a purpose for which these were apparently adapted. ”

“ Though the castles of Ireland, in point of architectural magnificence, are not to be compared with many of the more important structures of a similar character in England, they are frequently of very considerable extent. Placed as they often are upon the summit of a lofty and precipitous rock, the base of which is usually washed by the waters of a river or lake, or by the sea, encompassed with walls and towers pierced with shot-holes, and only to be approached through well-defended gateways, they must, before the introduction of artillery, have been generally considered impregnable. ”

“ It has been too much the custom in the past to look upon Ireland as being especially favoured with a wealth of antiquities, Pagan and Christian, more or less indigenous to the soil, and independent of the successive waves of influences sweeping from the Mediterranean littoral, and from Central Europe, ever westward and northward. Light can be thrown on problems still unsolved only by following the more scientific method of inquiry pursued, and by applying to them the knowledge gained in the wider field of European research. ”

“ Notwithstanding the number and variety of sepulchral remains in Ireland, it is strange that the rites and ceremonies attending the disposal of the dead in prehistoric times have not received from Irish archæologists the systematic study they deserve. Unfortunately many of the burial sites have, in the past, been treated in a manner that has left but little data of any scientific value for expert use. The number discovered, of cinerary urns containing human remains has been very great, and establish, beyond a doubt, the fact of the general custom of cremation. ”

“ The Early Irish traditions​—​so insisted on by many writers​—​of the successive invasions of Ireland by various races may contain a kernel at least of the truth of successive waves of the men of the Stone Age, overcome in time by a race stronger and better equipped with metal weapons.
The discovery of metal for the manufacture of implements marked a new epoch in the history of man. ”

“ There are certain antiquities which cannot well be classed with the remains referred to in the three preceding headings. Many of the lake-dwellings, or crannogs, for instance, are believed, with good reason, to have been in use even in pagan times in Ireland; some of these artificial islets were used in mediæval times, and several are recorded to have been occupied as places of human habitation so late as the seventeenth century. It would, therefore, be hazardous to classify them with either pagan or Christian remains, and it is certain that they are not Anglo-Irish. ”

“ Tacitus says the Germans dug underground dwellings: ‘These they use as winter retreats and granaries, for they preserve a moderate temperature; and upon an invasion, when the open country is plundered, these recesses remain inviolated, either because the enemy is ignorant of them, or because he will not trouble himself with the search.’
An examination of the kitchen-middens of some of these raths produced the ordinary ‘finds’ of primitive dwellings, stone, flint, and bone weapons and implements, the bones of animals used for food, fragments of pottery, bronze and iron objects. ”

“ If, upon viewing the remains of this ancient seat of royalty, disappointment is felt, and even the tales of its former magnificence questioned, it should be remembered that, since the latest period during which the kings and chiefs of Erin assembled here, thirteen centuries have elapsed, and our surprise will not be that so few indications of ancient grandeur are to be found, but that any vestige remains to point out its site. ”

“ Celt Moulds.​—​That Irish bronze weapons are of home manufacture, no one who has given the subject any consideration can doubt. Though bearing a general resemblance to remains of a similar class found in Britain, and on the Continent of Europe, the nationality of the majority of such relics found in the bogs, beds of rivers, and newly broken land of Ireland, is sufficiently indicated by certain minute peculiarities which, to a skilled observer, are almost invariably perceptible. ”

“ An archæologist upon arriving in Dublin will find, within ready access of that city, examples, many of them in a fine state of preservation, of almost every structure of archæological interest to be met with in any part of the kingdom. Sepulchral tumuli​—​several of which, in point of rude magnificence, are admitted to be unrivalled in Europe​—​cromlechs, pillar-stones, cairns, stone circles, and other remains of the earliest archæological periods in Ireland, lie within a journey of a couple of hours of the metropolis. ”

“ While in the northern and other parts of the Continent of Europe, bronze swords are commonly found with handles of the same metal, we cannot point to a single Irish specimen so furnished. Rapiers and dagger-knives of bronze, the blades and handles of which are of the same material, have frequently been found in Ireland. The handle-plates of swords are often found broken; and in some cases the break has been welded, which shows that this was the weakest part of the weapon. Bronze swords everywhere seem to have been used more for thrusting in close combat than for striking ”

“ For many years it has served as a convenient quarry for builders of houses and repairers of roads. That it could be explored at little cost is certain, as, owing to the denudation it has suffered, the passage or gallery leading to its chamber has, in part, been laid bare. Its circle or circles are not altogether obliterated; and here and there some portions remain which show that the work, though less massive than that of Newgrange, was at least as striking as anything to be found in Dowth, or in connection with the remains at Loughcrew, or others occurring in the western districts of Ireland. ”

“ In the National Museum, Dublin, will be found the Royal Irish Academy collection of weapons and implements of the New Stone and Bronze periods, gold ornaments, crannog remains, Ogam stones, and relics of early Christian Art, which, we think it is not too much to say, is one of the finest and most representative that any country in Europe can show. ”

“ Gold Ornaments.​—​By far the largest number of important objects for personal decoration of the Bronze Age found in Ireland are of gold. The quantity that has been discovered is very large; and Ireland has perhaps the richest collection in Europe of prehistoric gold ornaments. There are many references to gold in the Irish ‘Annals’; and, judging from them, its antiquity in Ireland is great. ”

“ As in the manuscript and metal work, and in the general ornamentation of the churches, this is of a most elaborate character. There is a profusion of spiral pattern, Celtic tracery, and zoomorphic design found on these crosses. The whole body of Christian doctrine finds its expression in their sculpture, intended, no doubt, by means of symbolical representation, to be great object-lessons in the way of faith to every beholder. The central idea on the face of the cross is usually the Crucifixion, and on the back the Resurrection, or Christ in Glory ”

“ Towards the close of the Stone Age the custom of burning the bodies of the dead was practised by the inhabitants of the British Isles. The dead were also disposed of by ordinary burial, by placing the body in either a horizontal, sitting, or perpendicular position. Both methods were practised throughout the whole succeeding archæological period, or Bronze Age, as numerous remains testify. When cremated, the calcined remains were placed in an urn, and then deposited, often with a small food-vessel, within an artificial chamber. ”

“ It will be well to compare its architectural features with those of the older structure. The Pointed doorway offers a striking contrast to that in the west gable; and its east window is equally different from that in the ancient chancel, being larger, and chamfered upon the exterior. The fact of a semicircular arch-head being cut out of a single stone is of itself no proof of high antiquity, as it occurs in many comparatively late structures in Ireland ”

“ Notwithstanding the frequent pillage of church property by the Danes, and the destruction of ‘superstitious’ relics in a later time, numerous examples, remarkable for the beauty of their decoration and the excellence of their workmanship, have been preserved to our own day. The Irish crosier has simply the curved handle of a staff, which seems originally to have belonged to a saint or founder of a church, on which the metal covering was subsequently laid. ”

“ The castles of Howth, Malahide, Maynooth, Trim, Carlow, and many others, are silent witnesses to the fact that the early invaders were occasionally obliged to place some faith in the efficacy of strong walls and towers to resist the advances of their restless neighbours, who, for several centuries subsequent to the Invasion, were rather the levellers than the builders of castles. Of the massive square keep, so common in every part of the kingdom, but especially within the English Pale, the Dublin neighbourhood furnishes several examples. ”

“ When life and property were unsafe, the desire for security, as well as social habit, gave rise to these works. The dwellers fortified their camps for themselves and their cattle, moving about freely in times of peace, and withdrawing to these strongholds in times of danger. They were as much a necessity in early days as the walls and bastions defending the towns in the Middle Ages. ”

“ The gateways are of particular interest and of varied features; the more general kind have inclined sides, a heavy lintel, and a regular course of masonry through the wall. Passages and chambers exist within some of these cashels, intended, no doubt, like the souterrains, as places of retreat in time of danger. These stone forts were sometimes defended by outer works, as in the case of Dunbeg (Kerry) and Moghane (Clare) , or by a chevaux-de-frise of sharp stones set in the ground, as at Dun Ængus and Dubh Caher in Aranmore, Ballykinvarga in Clare, and Dunamoe in Mayo. ”

“ It has been objected to the map theory that in the parts of Scotland and England where circle-and-channel scorings occur most numerously, no raths or forts, or, if any, very few, are to be found. But it may be urged that the early British strongholds, corresponding to our raths, duns, and stone forts, were very frequently composed of perishable materials, such as timber stockades,30 or the interwoven branches of trees, of which, in the course of a few centuries at most, no trace would remain. ”

“ It would be natural to suppose that, for the site of the tomb of the great king and law-maker, his posterity (or, indeed, probably he himself, during his own lifetime) selected the most elevated spot on the entire range; hence we propose to call the carn on that spot​—​904 feet above the sea-level, and situated on the middle hill​—​Ollamh Fodhla’s tomb, and the great stone seat “Ollamh Fodhla’s Chair”; and the ruined remains of the smaller surrounding cairns, six of which still remain, the tombs of his sons and grandsons, mentioned in the previous extracts. ”