DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.47496#0114
94 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
brother Tadhg, whom he delivered to the men of Ely O’Carroll,
‘■'who accordingly killed him, as was desired of them by his
brother Donagh.”—Ann. of Four Mast., a.d. 1023.
After procuring this murder he became king of Ireland, and
held the throne till the year 1064, when we read that “he was
deposed, and he afterwards went to Rome, where he died, under
the victory of penance, in the monastery of Stephen the Martyr.
The second name mentioned is that of MacRaith O’Donoghoe,
Lord of Eoghanacht of Cashel, and crown prince of Munster,
whose death is recorded by the Four Masters at the year 1052.
“ This fact,” says Dr. Todd, “ still further limits the date of this
side of the box to the twenty-nine years between 1023 to 1052.
Of Dunchad O’Tagain, the next name mentioned, we know
nothing more than that he was a monk of Clonmacnois and the
silversmith by whom the box was made.
This cumdach is held to have belonged originally to the
monastery of Lorrha, in the county of Tipperary, whence it may
have been carried at a subsequent period to the Irish monastery
of Ratisbon. It was found in Austria by Mr. John Grace,
officer in the Austrian service in the year 1784, who died without
leaving any memorandum respecting the monastery or library
where he discovered it. Dr. O’Conor obtained it from the family
of Mr. John Grace for the library of the Duke of Buckingham,
whence it passed into the possession of the Earl of Ashburnham,
and it has now been deposited in the Museum of the Royal Irish
Academy.*
This case, or cumdach, is made of oak, covered with plates of
silver. The lower and more ancient side is divided into four
compartments by cross bands, leaving the inscriptions above
mentioned. These have been mutilated at their intersection to
make way for a crystal set in an oval frame, of the same work-
manship and evidently of the same date as the top of the box.
* See Petrie’s “ Christian Inscriptions of Ireland.” Edited by M. Stokes.
Vol. ii. p. 93.
brother Tadhg, whom he delivered to the men of Ely O’Carroll,
‘■'who accordingly killed him, as was desired of them by his
brother Donagh.”—Ann. of Four Mast., a.d. 1023.
After procuring this murder he became king of Ireland, and
held the throne till the year 1064, when we read that “he was
deposed, and he afterwards went to Rome, where he died, under
the victory of penance, in the monastery of Stephen the Martyr.
The second name mentioned is that of MacRaith O’Donoghoe,
Lord of Eoghanacht of Cashel, and crown prince of Munster,
whose death is recorded by the Four Masters at the year 1052.
“ This fact,” says Dr. Todd, “ still further limits the date of this
side of the box to the twenty-nine years between 1023 to 1052.
Of Dunchad O’Tagain, the next name mentioned, we know
nothing more than that he was a monk of Clonmacnois and the
silversmith by whom the box was made.
This cumdach is held to have belonged originally to the
monastery of Lorrha, in the county of Tipperary, whence it may
have been carried at a subsequent period to the Irish monastery
of Ratisbon. It was found in Austria by Mr. John Grace,
officer in the Austrian service in the year 1784, who died without
leaving any memorandum respecting the monastery or library
where he discovered it. Dr. O’Conor obtained it from the family
of Mr. John Grace for the library of the Duke of Buckingham,
whence it passed into the possession of the Earl of Ashburnham,
and it has now been deposited in the Museum of the Royal Irish
Academy.*
This case, or cumdach, is made of oak, covered with plates of
silver. The lower and more ancient side is divided into four
compartments by cross bands, leaving the inscriptions above
mentioned. These have been mutilated at their intersection to
make way for a crystal set in an oval frame, of the same work-
manship and evidently of the same date as the top of the box.
* See Petrie’s “ Christian Inscriptions of Ireland.” Edited by M. Stokes.
Vol. ii. p. 93.