Medieval Treasures of County Kerry 0956571409, 9780956571403

Table of contents :
Acknowledgements 4
Preface 5
The Ogham Stones of County Kerry / FIONNBARR MOORE 7
Kerry’s Viking-Age Silver: A Legacy of Antiquarians, Collectors and Dealers / JOHN SHEEHAN 19
Plunder or Funerary Offerings? Burial, Ritual and Artefact Deposition in Cloghermore Cave / MICHAEL CONNOLLY 33
The Aghadoe and River Laune Crosiers / GRIFFIN MURRAY 45
Murder, Pillage and Destruction: Archaeological Finds from Medieval Tralee / LAURENCE DUNNE 61
Irish Sheela-na-gigs: the Kerry Connection / EAMONN P. KELLY 73
The Lislaughtin Cross / RAGHNALL Ó FLOINN 82

Citation preview

Medieval Treasures of County Kerry Edited by Griffin Murray

An Action of the Kerry County Council Heritage Plan Gníomh do Phlean Oidhreacht Comhairle Contae Chiarraí 1

Published in 2010 by Kerry County Museum, Tralee

© Kerry County Museum and individual authors Cover image, detail of Lislaughtin cross (Photography Bryan Rutledge, copyright National Museum of Ireland). Title page image, Arraglen Ogham Stone (Drawing by Patricia Johnson) Designed by Daniel Dowling Printed by Walsh Colour Print, Castleisland ISBN Number: 978-0-9565714-0-3

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Contents

Page

Acknowledgements

4

Preface

5

The Ogham Stones of County Kerry

7

FIONNBARR MOORE

Kerry’s Viking-Age Silver: A Legacy of Antiquarians, Collectors and Dealers

19

JOHN SHEEHAN

Plunder or Funerary Offerings? Burial, Ritual and Artefact Deposition in Cloghermore Cave

33

MICHAEL CONNOLLY

The Aghadoe and River Laune Crosiers

45

GRIFFIN MURRAY

Murder, Pillage and Destruction: Archaeological Finds from Medieval Tralee

61

LAURENCE DUNNE

Irish Sheela-na-gigs: the Kerry Connection

73

EAMONN P. KELLY

The Lislaughtin Cross

82

RAGHNALL Ó FLOINN

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Acknowledgements This publication would not have been possible without the support of the Heritage Council and the Arts, Culture and Heritage Department of Kerry County Council and my sincere thanks to both bodies, with particular thanks to Michael Connolly, County Archaeologist, and Una Cosgrave, Heritage Officer. Sincere thanks also to the staff of Kerry County Museum, especially the Manager/Curator, Helen O’Carroll, and the Education and Outreach Officer, Claudia Köhler, both of whom supported this project enthusiastically from the beginning. Finally, I would like to thank all of the contributors for their generosity in giving over their valuable time and expertise to this project.

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Preface Kerry has a rich and varied heritage, but it was the medieval heritage of the county that was chosen as the subject for a public lecture series held in Kerry County Museum in 2009/2010. Reflecting one of the museum’s main interests, the series focused on the most important medieval artefacts from the county. Seven lectures were presented on subjects ranging in date from the very beginning to the very end of the medieval period (c.400 – 1550 AD). These lectures were presented by some of the most eminent scholars in the field of medieval archaeology in this country. The series quickly proved to be a success and the idea of publishing the lectures was proposed. Thus, here are all of the lectures published in a format that we hope, in the manner of the lectures themselves, is accessible to everyone who holds an interest in Ireland’s heritage. One of the best things about this book is the vast amount of new research carried out by the individual authors for their papers. Together, they have presented recently discovered finds, rediscovered old finds and fresh perspectives on some of the well-known treasures from the county. Sadly, some of the artefacts discussed have not only been lost to Kerry, but to Ireland, during days when modern legislation and proper museums did not exist. Thankfully, things have changed and we are now in strong position to protect, research, and exhibit our country’s unique archaeological heritage. The first four papers in this volume deal with objects from the early medieval period (c.400 – 1169). There are vast numbers of ogham stones from the county, the functions of which are eloquently explained by Fionnbarr Moore in the opening chapter. The county’s fascinating Viking archaeology is explored in the next two chapters by John Sheehan and Michael Connolly, whose new discoveries and research have thrown great light on an aspect of Kerry’s past that was, up to recently, thought not to have existed. In the paper on the Aghadoe and River Laune crosiers the editor discusses the two most stunning artefacts surviving from the early medieval Church in Kerry. The following three papers deal with material from the late medieval period, i.e. after the AngloNorman invasion (1169-1550). Perhaps less well known and celebrated than the earlier material, it is, however, no less spectacular and interesting. Laurence Dunne publishes some of his recent findings from Tralee, uncovering important information about the Dominican abbey, as well as some gruesome facts. Eamonn Kelly discusses Kerry’s Sheela-na-gigs in a wider context for the first time, which gives us a much greater understanding and appreciation of these explicit carvings. Finally, Raghnall Ó Floinn discusses one of the most important artefacts surviving from late medieval Ireland or Britain, the Lislaughtin cross, providing fresh and exciting analysis of both its art and its historical context. It is hoped that readers will enjoy and learn from this book and that it will foster in them a greater appreciation of Kerry’s important medieval heritage. Indeed, the medieval treasures of county Kerry are something that the people of Kerry and the people of Ireland can be very proud of.

GRIFFIN MURRAY

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The Ogham Stones of County Kerry - Fionnbarr Moore

Figure 1: Distribution map of ogham stones in Britain and Ireland. Only stones with a reliable context are shown. 6

The Ogham Stones of County Kerry - Fionnbarr Moore

The Ogham Stones of County Kerry FIONNBARR MOORE The subject of ogham writing and ogham stones in particular has excercised the minds of scholars for over two hundred years and while it also provided amusement and interest in the medieval period to the poets of the time, its occurrence on stone monuments was largely ignored until the arrival of Edward Lhuyd, the Welsh Antiquary, in 1702 who recorded the Emlagh East, Trabeg ogham stone (Plate 1) near Dingle.

In all there are over 400 ogham inscriptions on stone dating to what can be termed the monumental phase of the script, which lasted from the fourth to the eight centuries AD. Out of approximately 360 ogham stones from Ireland, 252 are from Munster, of which 247 are scattered across Kerry, Cork and Waterford. Kerry, with 130 inscriptions, has the greatest concentration. Ogham letters are usually formed by grouping between one and ive parallel lines or notches for each letter alongside or diagonally across the edge of a stone. Sometimes a stem-line is carved on the stone and the ogham inscription carved with respect to it (Figure 2). Ogham is usually read up the left angle of the stone, sometimes across the top and down the other side. On occasion, it can read up both angles of one of the broad faces. The inscription normally gives a person’s name (usually male) and an

Plate 1: Emlagh East, Trabeg (‘Cloch an tSagairt’). Brussccos Maqqi Caliaci. Ogham is not, as has often been mistakenly asserted, a cipher based on the Latin alphabet, but is a distinct alphabet in its own right representing the distinct sounds of the Irish language, most likely heavily inluenced by Latin grammarians of the second to fourth centuries AD. While the origins of the script could date back to the second or third centuries AD its application to stone is later. As can be seen from the distribution map (Figure 1), while they occur mainly in the South, ogham stones are found throughout the country and also occur in some numbers in Wales, Scotland and the Isle of Man, where they indicate Irish settlements in Britain in the declining years of the Roman Empire. While two of the ogham stones from southwest Scotland probably represent Irish settlement in the area, the ogham stones in the east and northeast of Scotland are written in Pictish or possibly Old Norse and their story is not directly linked to the Irish examples, though the use of the ogham script is intriguing. The accompanying distribution map, a work in progress, indicates their location but not their context.

Figure 2: Key to ogham alphabet. Letters with question marks after them have not been confirmed and are based on values given for them in the manuscripts. immediate antecedent. In some cases a remote tribal ancestor is also named. The inscriptions follow a limited number of formulae and usually take the form of X MAQI Y, meaning X son of Y. They can also read X AVI (grandson) of Y or X MAQI MUCOI (descendent) of Y, where MUCOI refers to an ancestral deity or eponymous igure. Female names are rare and INIGENA, meaning ‘daughter of’, for example, occurs on one stone in Wales, while NIOTTA, meaning ‘nephew of’, is found on one at Garraundarragh, near Castleisland in Co. Kerry. The inscriptions are almost always in the genitive case, denoting possession, and as a result one must presume that something along the lines of ‘name of’, ‘stone of’, ‘land of’, ‘burial place of’ or ‘territory of’, is implied at the start. 7

The Ogham Stones of County Kerry - Fionnbarr Moore The word ‘ANM’, meaning ‘name of’ actually occurs in a few instances; the stone at Bunbinnia in the Black Valley being a case in point (pl.2). The ogham alphabet also includes ive symbols known as forfeda. These were introduced by scribes to represent letters of the Greek and Latin alphabets not already matched by ogham characters. Forfeda symbols representing e and o are found on the ogham pillar in the early ecclesiastical site at Killogrone, about 4 km south of Cahersiveen, while the forid, interpreted as representing the letter p occurs on the Cool East stone (Kildreenagh on Valencia island). The e forid in the Killogrone inscription is an x symbol; on the edge of the stone, which is in fact the original symbol for k. The use of the X forid to represent the e sound is a late development and belongs to a period when the original values of the forfeda were no longer being adhered to. The use of ANM, and X with its later e value, is a feature of ogham stones of Cork and Kerry and marks the end of the tradition of erecting these monuments and the beginning of the long tradition of ogham in the manuscripts. While the

X symbol with its earlier consonantal K value occurs on the tall stone from Coolmagort, near Dunloe (Degos Maqi Mucoi Toicaki) (Plate 3), this symbol is most commonly associated with the word KOI, which occurs on a number of stones. KOI may be the equivalent of Latin Hic Iacit, meaning ‘here lyeth’ and it has been argued that it may represent direct Christian inluence from the Continent in the ifth century.

R.A.S. Macalister produced a Corpus of ogham inscriptions in 1945-49 and had produced an earlier corpus (Studies in Early Irish Epigraphy) between 1897 and 1907. This work

Plate 3: Coolmagort. Degos Maqi Mocoi Toicaki (Con Brogan ©Dept. of Environment, Heritage and Local Government). paved the way for Eoin MacNeill, the pioneering historian and Professor of Early Irish History in University College Dublin to put the study of the language and the historical information contained in the inscriptions on a irmer footing. Prior to this, throughout the nineteenth century a great debate had raged on the dating, meaning and function of ogham. The inscriptions were poorly understood as the language was dificult, in its earliest form pre-dating the earliest manuscript Irish, and numerous fanciful theories were expounded, largely centring on whether they were Pagan or Christian monuments. It was Fr. Mathew Horgan of Cork who, in the 1830’s, irst noticed the recurring group of letters which spell Maqi (son of) thereby cracking the ogham formula and enabling the inscriptions to be broken down into their constituent parts.

Plate 2: Bunbinnia, Black Valley. Anm Berach Maci Un(d)…… (Con Brogan ©Dept. of Environment, Heritage and Local Government).

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The recognition of bilingual stones in Wales towards the end of the nineteenth century by Prof. John Rhys, and, in particular, that from Castell Dwyran in South Wales, which

The Ogham Stones of County Kerry - Fionnbarr Moore may commemorate the historical igure, Voteporix, castigated by Gildas in the sixth century for reverting to Pagan ways, helped to date and conirm the formulae used in the Irish ones. Following the work of Macalister and MacNeill in Ireland the subject of ogham took a leap forward in Wales with the production by Nash-Williams of The Early Christian Monuments of Wales in 1950 and by Kenneth Jackson in his paper entitled Notes on the ogham inscriptions of Southern Britain, also published in 1950. Like MacNeill and Macalister before them, they revolutionised the subject and Jackson’s relative chronology for the development of Irish as evidenced in the British ogham inscriptions from the ifth to the seventh centuries could be applied to the Irish examples. Then in 1991 Damian McManus published his very important book on the language of the ogham inscriptions in which he provided a relative chronology of as many of the inscriptions as he could conidently read. McManus’s relative dating of the inscriptions has been generally accepted, but some scholars, like Anthony Harvey and Patrick Sims-Williams, would be inclined to push it back a bit and they would see a wider linguistic basis than Latin for the origin of some of the symbols. Wherever the truth may lie, Damian McManus has provided us with a relative chronology and foundation, or spring board, for such debates. Work on the British inscriptions has also been advanced in recent times by Katherine Forsythe on the Scottish stones, and Charles Thomas and Thomas Charles Edwards on the Welsh and Cornish examples. Anthony Harvey’s writings in Eriú and elsewhere and Cathy Swift’s book, published in 1997, on Ogham Stones and the Earliest Irish Christians have widened the debate. Patrick Sim-Williams’ major work on The Celtic Inscriptions of Britain: Phonology and Chronology, C. 4001200 published in 2003 has given us an invaluable up to date linguistic treatment of the British oghams. Recent comment by Sims-Williams, for example, challenges the accepted dating of the Castell Dwyran inscription, mentioned above, (Votecorigas/ Memoria Voteporigis) and suggests that it may well commemorate an earlier member of the same dynasty in Dyfed. If so, this would push back the received date for this stone by possibly as much as 40 years, back to the early sixth century. By the same token the date of all the British inscriptions would have to be pushed back accordingly.

It is likely to be the case that while ogham had its origins in a non monumental script, its application to stone cannot be pushed back much before the late fourth century, at the earliest, and the creation of the script is unlikely to precede this by much. Stones such as that from Trecastle in Wales, with inscriptions reading Maqitreni Saliciduni in ogham and Maccutreni Saliciduni in Latin, dating to the ifth to early sixth centuries, may show a conservatism in the ogham orthography, where the contemporary pronunciation is relected in the Latin (Figure 3). While we do not know exactly when the alphabet was actually invented, we do know that between the fourth and eighth centuries AD it was applied to stone and would appear to have served a variety of functions, both secular and religious, at that time. Damian McManus has demonstrated that by the time ogham appears on stone in Ireland it is already well established as a script with a consistent alphabet and orthography (i.e. established spelling of names etc.). The range of monument types that ogham occurs on, or in association with, would also imply that the ogham alphabet

Figure 3: Trecastle, Wales. Maqitreni Saliciduni (Ogham) Maccutreni Saliciduni (Latin) Drawing by Kevin O’Brien 9

The Ogham Stones of County Kerry - Fionnbarr Moore had been devised for a non-monumental purpose and that perhaps in imitation of memorial fashions in Roman Britain or the Continent the Irish began to apply it to stone. This act of writing on pre-existing monuments as well as deliberately erecting new ones gives us a unique glimpse into the minds of people at the end of our prehistory and of their relationship with the landscape.

Crosses on Ogham Stones Ogham inscribed stones may have functioned as memorials, grave-markers or territorial markers. In a number of examples, though not often on the earlier ones, a cross accompanies the inscription and, in time, ogham stones overlap with, and eventually give way to the developing cross-slab tradition, which is particularly associated with inscriptions in the Latin alphabet. The inscription at Killeenleagh, south of the River Inny, in the Waterville area, is accompanied by a ine Maltese cross which may be contemporary with the inscription, while the tall ogham stone from the souterrain at Coolmagort, near Dunloe, has a very small equal armed cross within a circle carved on its upper face. It is the only cross-inscribed stone of the seven ogham stones found in the souterrain at Coolmagort and suggests a tentative early engagement with the developing cross-slab tradition. The ine Maltese cross,

of seventh to eighth-century date, on the ogham stone from Church Island, near Valencia, on the other hand, is earlier than the accompanying inscription and in this instance the ogham may well represent the end of the tradition of carving ogham inscriptions on stone monuments. The Killogrone cross is obviously a later addition to a late ogham inscription. The cross on the Ballynahunt inscribed slab, originally probably from the holy well known as Tobar na Croise at the head of Kilduff valley near Anascaul, is inverted with respect to the inscription. The small cross at the base of the water rolled stone from Kinard, near Lispole, could be a later addition to an existing cross inscribed stone of ifth-century date (bearing the Latin name Mariani). At Kilfountain, to the northwest of Dingle, a Latin inscription and cross supersedes an earlier ogham inscription while at Maumanorig the cross and inscription, commemorating a pilgrim by the name of Colmán, are obviously contemporaneous (Plate 4). While certain combinations of name, formula and cross, may indicate a Christian memorial, that is not to say that other stones without obvious Christian indicators are necessarily pagan or belong in a pre-Christian cultural context. The original function which a stone may have served is important when evaluating its cultural context, religious or otherwise. A stone that might have indicated a boundary or grant of land

Plate 4: Maumanorig, Kilcolman. Anm Colman Ailithir. 10

The Ogham Stones of County Kerry - Fionnbarr Moore is neither Pagan nor Christian as it would have had a purely secular function. Some of the stones may also have been brought into ecclesiastical sites from ancestral burial grounds at a later date, echoing what happened in Britain in the tenth and eleventh centuries, or they may indicate that a particular church site is a Christianised ancestral burial place, hence the later addition of a cross.

Function of Ogham Stones The occurrence of ogham stones in such a wide variety of locations suggests that they may have served a number of functions, ranging from simple memorial to asserting land ownership and ixing territorial or other boundaries. It can be demonstrated from the siting of some of the stones in Kerry that they may have served a role in relation to afirming title to land. The ogham inscribed standing stone at Dromlusk, near Gearha bridge, west of Kenmare, one of a pair of standing stones, one of which also bears a prehistoric art motif, and the boulder in Knockbrack, near Castlemaine, also with prehistoric rock art carved on it, may be cases in point. The ogham stone on Drung Hill (Plate 5) on the northern side of the Iveragh peninsula, in Gleensk/Kilkeehagh, over

1,200 feet above sea level, is set into a cairn known as Leacht Fhionáin or Leacht an Daimh and was formerly a place of pilgrimage on the last Sunday of July. According to local tradition, St Finan and his dog are buried there, although it is also traditionally associated with the burial of one of Fionn Mac Cumhaill’s hounds. This site is spectacularly situated on an elevated routeway, is on a townland, parish and barony boundary and may have witnessed the inauguration of Florence MacCarthy as MacCarthy More in 1600AD. In this case the ogham may have served a number of functions, marking a burial, an ancient assembly place and a signiicant territorial boundary. In support of a function for ogham as boundary or territorial markers, there are a number of references in the ancient brehon law tracts where it is suggested that ogham had a legal function in relation to land. It could settle disputes over land ownership by effectively acting as a witness and it could also ‘contain the memory of two adjoining lands’ by which it is probably meant that it could mark a boundary.

Plate 5: Gleensk/Kilkeehagh. Maqi R…… 11

The Ogham Stones of County Kerry - Fionnbarr Moore

Souterrains with Ogham Stones Over 130 ogham stones have been found in souterrains (the underground storage or hiding places often found in ringforts) (e.g. Plate 6) and these may well have been appropriated from nearby ancestral burial places or ecclesiastical sites. Where more than one ogham stone has been found in a souterrain they can often, on linguistic grounds, have a wide variation in date. One of the inscribed stones from Rockield, east of Killorglin, for example, dates to the mid-ifth century while another from the same souterrain, dates to the mid-sixth century; a difference of a hundred years. The inscription on a tall pillar stone from a souterrain at Monataggart, Co. Cork, dates to the late sixth/early seventh century and is almost two hundred years younger than two others from the same site. The occurrence of ogham stones in these contexts is important as, for the irst time we are seeing the appropriation of monuments from the landscape for a purely secular secondary function. It is as if there was a change of attitude to the landscape as Christianity took a stronger foothold in the eight and ninth centuries, the time when souterrains were being constructed for the irst time. As suggested above, the ecclesiastical sites with early ogham associations may well have been ancestral burial places that developed into church sites and such developments are not unlikely in the early medieval period. There is evidence in many parts of the country for inscribed and un-inscribed standing stones having been set up to mark places of burial. A granite standing stone, for example, stands between the earlymedieval Latin cross, also of granite, and the entrance gate of the churchyard at Newcastle Lyons, Co. Dublin, indicating the possibility that there was a pre-Christian burial ground at this site. There may also have been a partial revival of the standing stone as a monument form in the early medieval period as indicated, for example, in the excavations carried out at the early medieval cemetery of Killederdadrum in Tipperary and the iron age – early medieval transition cemetery of Kiltullagh Co. Mayo. While there is also evidence for this practice elsewhere, there is no doubt that in a large percentage of cases the ogham inscribed standing stones are of prehistoric origin, itting in with the pattern of bronze-age

monuments in the areas where they occur. There is also the possibility that this blending in with the prehistoric landscape is disguising the truth and future research through excavation should help clarify the issue. A particularly intriguing stone is that set into the prehistoric barrow (burial mound) at Island, Co Mayo with an inscription reading Cunalegi Avi Cunaconas and there is a possibility that it may indicate a real link with the elusive preceeding Iron Age, out of which culture ogham writing undoubtedly came.

Dating and Site Types The ogham stones of Kerry range in date across the entire period of ogham’s monumental use and there is no chronological progression from one monument type to another. One of the stones from the ecclesiastical site at Kilcoolaght, south of Killorglin, for example, dates from the irst half of the sixth century, while the inscribed prehistoric standing stones at Dromlusk, west of Kenmare, Dromatouk, east of Kenmare, and Lomanagh, near Kilgarvan, may date to the early seventh century (Plate 7) The stones at Canburrin, south of Cahersiveen, and Cool East, Valencia, for example, are adjacent to early ecclesiastical enclosures and may well indicate the boundary of Church lands. The stone in the Black Valley at Bunbinnia, is quite late in date, i.e. probably seventh century, and while the individual cannot be readily identiied, the name Berach occurs in the early martyrologies of the saints and it may well be that, in this case, we are looking at a memorial to an ascetic or hermit who was associated with this beautiful place (Plate 8).

Plate 6: Rathkenny, Lismore. Comma……agni m…i sammnn.

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The Ogham Stones of County Kerry - Fionnbarr Moore

Ogham stones represent a period of transition in Irish society, a time when the Roman world, literacy and Christianity were having a signiicant inluence on events and the island was entering the beginning of the historic period. The inscriptions tell us what the signiicant tribal groups were at the time, with some of them invoking ancestral deities such as Dovinias, ancestor deity of the Corca Dhuibhne (rulers of the Dingle Peninsula and much of the Iveragh Peninsula in the early medieval period). The name Dovinias, for example, is found on the ogham stone at Dún Mór (Plate 9), the promontory fort in Coumeenole, west Kerry, where the sixth-century inscription reads Erc Maqi Maqi-Ercias Mu (coi) Dovinia, meaning: “(of) Erc son of Mac Erc descendent of Dovinias”. The name Dovinias also occurs at Ballintaggart, near Dingle (Figure 4) and at Gearha South, west of Kenmare, which indicates the extent of the Corcu Dhuibhne inluence in the ifth-sixth centuries. Personal names are available for the irst time in our history, directly associated with ancient sites, and while some of the places in which the stones occur demonstrate a deep connection with the prehistoric landscape and its monuments, others point to the major changes that would eventually create a very different medieval world.

groups were possibly taken from abandoned ecclesiastical sites this strengthens the picture in this regard. The survival in church yards and souterrains may however give a false bias to the picture as standing stones in the open landscape are much more vulnerable to damage or destruction. One could argue that certain prehistoric sites retained their signiicance or took on a renewed signiicance in the early medieval period. However, that may be a rather narrow interpretation of the evidence and an alternative view would see the application of ogham to a range of prehistoric monuments as implying that the entire archaeological landscape had a signiicant meaning for the people of the early medieval period. This would be consistent with our growing understanding of man’s relationship with monuments in prehistory and of the gradual evolution of an alternative landscape to the natural one, a landscape made by man, evolving out of and relecting the natural one but separate. Standing stones, cairns, mounds etc; would have been obvious land marks, re-interpreted over the centuries to give meaning to the landscape and to man’s place in it. The application of

Recent work by the writer has focussed on the archaeological context of the stones as prior to this, the subject had been the preserve of linguists and historians who studied the inscriptions for the light they may shed on the early development of written Irish and for insights into the political make up of Ireland at the dawn of our history. Through ieldwork it has been possible to demonstrate that many of the stones are probably in situ and this is important when one is trying to understand their possible function. It is possible, for example, to suggest which ones may have been carved on re-used ancient standing stones or on grave slabs made to mark simple burials of the early medieval period. As the distribution map demonstrates (Figure 1), from north to south, ogham stones occur in contexts which range from ecclesiastical sites to souterrains, mounds, small enclosures and ringforts, standing stones, stone rows or stone pairs, a stone circle, 2 promontory forts and one rock art site. Signiicantly, the same variety of locations applies in Scotland, Wales and England. The ecclesiastical associations are strong, however, and if we allow for the possibility that some of the souterrain

Plate 7: Lomanagh. Ottinn Maqi Vecr[ec] (Connie Murphy ©Dept. of Environment, Heritage and Local Government). 13

The Ogham Stones of County Kerry - Fionnbarr Moore

Plate 8: Bunbinnia, Black Valley, looking towards the head of the valley. ogham to these sites can be seen as a relection of this fact and not merely the fortuitous re-use of a convenient feature of the landscape with no link to the past and the known or perceived history of the site. Furthermore, if one examines the chronological range of the ogham inscriptions and the nature of the sites chosen there is no evolution from site type to site type.

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If one takes the earliest examples of ogham, dated linguistically to the early-ifth century by McManus, their geographical break down for Kerry is as follows: one from Ballinrannig, near Smerwick; six from Ballintaggart (Figure 4); one from Kinard, near Dingle; and one from Cockhill (Kilnaughtin); all ecclesiastical sites. The Ballinrannig site is known as Kilvickillane (Cill Mhic Fhaoláin) and sick cattle were traditionally driven through its holy well and around the

Plate 9: Coumeenole, Dún Mór, Slea Head. Erc Maqi Maqi-Ercias Mu Dovinia

The Ogham Stones of County Kerry - Fionnbarr Moore ogham stone. Early ifth-century ogham inscriptions were also found in the souterrains at Rathmalode and Rockield to the east of Killorglin, on the standing stones at Ballintermon near Anascaul and Crag near Farranfore, and by the mound at Lugnagappul, to the east of Lispole (Plate 10). For the end of the ifth century we have one stone from each of the souterrains at Coolmagort (Plate 11) and Rockield and ecclesiastical associations continue in the irst half of the sixth century at Ballintaggart, Ballymorereagh and Kilcoolaght. The souterrains at Whiteield and Coolmagort also produced ogham stones of this date and the ogham stone in the promontory fort at Coumeenole (Dún Mór) near Slea Head is also probably early sixth-century in date (Plate 9). The ogham stone from the early ecclesiastical site of Teeromoyle, east of Cahersiveen at the foot Teermoyle mountain dates to the mid–second half of the sixth century, as does another one from the souterrain at Rockield and the famous example from Camp on the Dingle peninsula (Plate 12), inscribed Conunett Moqi Conuri in ogham and Fect Conuri in Latin. The Latin inscription, meaning “the grave of Curoi”, is intended to make a connection with Curoi Mac Daire, the legendary hero who is closely associated with the nearby promontory fort of Cathair Chonraoi; the link is undoubtedly tenuous. The ogham stone from Arraglen (Plate 13, igure 5) on the northern shoulder of Mount Brandon, known as Mas an Tiompán is late sixthcentury in date and commemorates a priest. It reads Qrimitir Ronann Maq Comogann, which translates as “of the priest Ronán, son of Comgan”. The ogham stones from the early ecclesiastical site at Ratass near Tralee and Letter to the south of Cahersiveen are also of this late sixth-century date. For the late sixth- early seventh centuries through to the eighth century the pattern stays the same. Kilmalkeadar, Dromkeare and Church Island, Co. Kerry, all have strong ecclesiastical associations. The Church Island inscription (Plate 14) postdates a Maltese cross of probable seventh- eighth-century date while the Dromkeare inscription is also accompanied by a cross. The Kilmalkeadar inscription (Plate 15) is a palimpsest, replacing an earlier one, and the later inscription undoubtedly commemorates a cleric. It reads Anm MaileInbir Maci Brocann and can be translated as follows: “Name of Maél-Inbher son of Brocann”. Maél has deinite Christian connotations and means servant or client. While not from Kerry, one of a pair of bronze-age standing stones from Drumlusk, Co. Cork, has rock art in the form of a circle and a horizontal line carved on it, as well as an ogham inscription;

Figure 4: Ballintaggart. 1. Akevritti. 2. Maqi Iari Koi Maqqi Muccoi Dovvinias. 3. Doveti Maqi Cattini 4. Suvallos Maqqi Ducovaros. 5. Maqqi Decceda Maqi Glasiconas. 6. Tria Maqa Mailagni /Curcitti. 7. Inissionas. 8. Cunamaqqi Avi Corbbi. 9. NettaLaminacca Koi Maqqi Mucoi Dovin[ia]s. 10. Inscription is almost completely buried. Drawing by Kevin O’Brien

Plate 10: Lugnagappul. Gossuctias

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The Ogham Stones of County Kerry - Fionnbarr Moore

Plate 11: Group of ogham stones from the souterrain at Coolmagort (Con Brogan ©Dept. of Environment, Heritage and Local Government). which illustrates the point that even at the end of the tradition of carving ogham inscriptions on stone they are occurring at a variety of sites and presumably serving a number of distinct, but sometimes overlapping, functions. The same range of sites is found throughout the entire period in which ogham was used for monumental purposes. A critical factor in assessing the presence of ogham at the above listed range of sites, particularly the non- ecclesiastical ones, is the fact that ogham does not occur at sites that did not already

Plate 13: Arraglen, Más an Tiompán.

have some signiicance. It would never have been applied to a glacial erratic or rock outcrop if that site had not been regarded previously as important. From the very start of its application to stone the writers of ogham were targeting particular landmarks and while the law tracts provide us with a possible reason for this it can only be fully understood if these sites and others that were never inscribed with ogham were already signiicant, already being used to deine the boundaries of land ownership, tribal boundaries and in many cases important repositories of ancestral remains. Otherwise, given the lack of any development on chronological lines from site type to site type, the wide application of ogham from the start is hard to fathom. It is also possible that some of these stones may have had a dual territorial/burial function. The distribution map (Figure 1) shows the geographical spread for the range of ogham stone sites and when considered in the context of their relative dating we have a remarkable phenomenon in that the site types chosen throughout the distribution remain remarkably consistent. The same holds for Britain and whether ogham was invented in Ireland or Britain the monumental application of the script to stone may well have begun here. The recent veriication of the ogham inscription on a door column from Roman Silchester, near Reading in England, and the convincing arguments made for it having a fourth-ifth-century date underlines the antiquity of the script, as it is an early example of the application of the later manuscript ogham to stone.

Plate 12: Camp. Fect Cunuri (Latin) Conunett Moqi Conuri (ogham). 16

The subject of ogham is quite large as it embraces language, history and archaeology; too large for anything more than a general account in a piece of this size, and I would refer the reader to the select bibliography appended to this paper if

The Ogham Stones of County Kerry - Fionnbarr Moore they would like to delve deeper into the subject.

Acknowledgements / Credits Thanks to Con Brogan and Tony Roche of the Photographic Unit, National Monuments Service, for help with the images. Photos by Fionnbarr Moore unless otherwise stated.

Plate 15: Kilmalkedar. Anm Maile-Inber Maci Brocann (©Dept. of Environment, Heritage and Local Government).

Plate 14: Ballycarbery West, Church Island, off Valencia. Becdinn Maci Ri[T (T)A]vvecass (©Dept. of Environment, Heritage and Local Government).

Figure 5: Arraglen, Más an Tiompán (Drawing by Patricia Johnson). Qrimitir Ronann Maq Comogann 17

The Ogham Stones of County Kerry - Fionnbarr Moore

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY Bennett, I. & Uí Shíthigh, M. 1995. Ogham stones of the Dingle Peninsula: Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne Guide Book. Ballyferriter. Cox, R. 1999. The Language of the Ogam Inscriptions of Scotland. Aberdeen. Cuppage, J. et al. 1986. Corca Dhuibhne, Dingle Peninsula Archaeological Survey. Ballyferriter. Forsyth, K. 1997. Languages in Pictland. Utrecht. Harvey, A. 2001. ‘Problems in dating the origins of the ogham script’, in J. Higgitt, K. Forsyth & D. N. Parsons (eds), Roman, Runes and ogham: medieval inscriptions in the insular world and on the Continent. Donington, pp. 37–50. Jackson, K.H. 1950. ‘Notes on the ogham inscriptions of Southern Britain’, in C. Fox & B. Dickins (eds), The Early Cultures of Northwest Europe: H. M. Chadwick memorial studies. Cambridge, pp. 199–213. Macalister, R.A.S. 1945. Corpus Inscriptionum Insularum Celticarum i. Dublin. Macalister, R.A.S. 1897, 1902, 1907. Studies in Irish Epigraphy, vols i- iii. London. McManus, D. 1991. A Guide to Ogam. Maynooth. McManus, D. 2004. Ogam Stones : At University College Cork. Cork. Moore, F. 1998. ‘Munster ogham stones: siting, context and function’, in M. A. Monk & J. Sheehan (eds), Early medieval Munster: archaeology, history and society. Cork, pp. 23–32. Moore, F. 2005. ‘Prehistoric rock art with associated ogham inscription from Knockbrack, Co. Kerry’, in T. Condit & C. Corlett (eds), Above and Beyond: essays in memory of Leo Swan. Bray, pp. 21-36. Moore, F. 2009. ‘Ogham Stones’, in E. Byrne et al. (Compilers), Archaeological Inventory of Co. Kerry: Vol 1 – South-West Kerry. Dublin, pp. 175-181. Nash-Williams, V.E. 1950. The Early Christian Monuments of Wales. Cardiff. O’Sullivan, A. & Sheehan, J. 1996. The Iveragh Peninsula: an archaeological survey of south Kerry. Cork. Sims-Williams, P. 2003. The Celtic inscriptions of Britain: Phonology and Chronology, C. 400-1200. Oxford. Swift, C. 1997. Ogam Stones and the Earliest Irish Christians. Maynooth. Thomas, C. 1994. And Shall These Mute Stones Speak? Post –Roman Inscriptions in Western Britain. Cardiff.

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Kerry’s Viking-Age Silver: A Legacy of Antiquarians, Collectors and Dealers - John Sheehan

Kerry’s Viking-Age Silver: A Legacy of Antiquarians, Collectors and Dealers JOHN SHEEHAN Much of the evidence for the Vikings and their activity in each season with their loot and slaves. By the 840s, however, Kerry is contained in the historical sources of the period, they had begun to build permanent raiding bases or longphuirt most notably the annals (Ó Corráin 2009). It is the discipline along the coastal and inland waterways, the most important of of archaeology, however, as well as the study of placewhich was located at Dublin. A more violent period followed, names, that expands and reines the historical framework. In characterised by large-scale attacks, during which the Vikings some cases it is modern archaeological excavation that has may have been attempting to conquer territories for settlement. produced new information on the Hiberno-Scandinavians The Irish kings eventually contained the threat, however, and and their activities in Kerry, as has been the case in the ninth-century Viking -settlement thereafter seems to have Kerry’s Viking-Age Silver: A Legacy of Antiquarians, Collectors and Dealers John Sheehan remarkable site of Cloghermore Cave, but generally it is a been conined to a small number of coastal bases and their chance archaeological ind or the fortuitous survival of a immediate hinterlands. Several of these became active as place-name that provides such evidence. In overall terms, trading centres as well as continuing in their role as raiding however, much of the evidence is somewhat disjointed, bases, and the wealth accumulated in them was sometimes being composed of a historical reference here, a place-name substantial. It was against this background that silver – the element there, or stray archaeological inds elsewhere. In the principal commodity on which the Scandinavian economies case of the archaeological inds from Kerry, as elsewhere in operated – was irst introduced into Ireland on a large scale. Ireland, these often form part of the antiquarians’ legacy to archaeology. This legacy, as will be evident from this paper, is From the mid-ninth century onwards the Vikings began not without its faults. In order to reach a fuller understanding to become increasingly integrated into the world of Irish of the Viking-age silver hoards and single-inds, therefore, politics. By the early decades of the tenth-century, however, one must research the history of the antiquarians engagement they realised that they could not conquer and settle territories with these inds. This involves studying antiquarian records in Ireland in the same manner as they had already achieved as well as tracking the artefacts as they transferred from one in large parts of England and Scotland. Consequently, they collection of antiquities to another, often through the sales seem to have decided to adopt an alternative strategy of and auctions of important collectors via antiquities dealers. colonising Ireland economically. To this end they founded a Prior to twentieth-century legislation and the developing number of trading towns, including Dublin, Cork, Waterford role of public museums, much archaeological material from and Limerick. Over time these were to become accepted Ireland left the country or disappeared. This is also the case elements within the framework of local kingdoms that formed with many of the Viking-age inds, and the purpose of this the political structure of early medieval Ireland. The towns paper is to consider the Kerry silver material, both in terms of became prosperous centres and developed important political the history of the inds as well as their general archaeological and economic interests, both within Ireland and abroad. In context. general terms, by the middle of the tenth century the Vikings

The Vikings

The irst Viking raids in Ireland took place, according to the historical sources, in 795. Over the following forty years or so many more attacks, sporadic in nature, took place, with the Vikings apparently returning to Scandinavia at the end of

in Ireland had been transformed from the raiders and looters of the ninth century. They now mainly lived in towns, engaged in commerce and trade, both national and international, and were becoming increasingly culturally integrated with the Irish. In addition they had become Christian, and later some Scandinavian art-styles began to appear on Irish ecclesiastical objects (see Murray ig. 9 this volume). They had undergone 19

Kerry’s Viking-Age Silver: A Legacy of Antiquarians, Collectors and Dealers - John Sheehan

tenth- century date are known from Ireland, representing a concentration of wealth that is not equalled elsewhere outside of Scandinavia during this period. However, despite the fact that the Hiberno-Scandinavians founded three towns in Munster, less than twenty per cent of Ireland's recorded Viking silver hoards derive from this province (Figure 1). There There are two signiicant archaeological sites in Kerry that are only sixteen silver hoards containing non-numismatic are of importance, in differing ways, towards reining our material on record from Munster, those from: Kilbarry, Lohort understanding of the Vikings and their activities, not just and Macroom, Co. Cork; Fenit and Cloghermore, Co. Kerry; in Kerry, but beyond. These sites, both of which have been Carraig Aille II and Mungret, Co. Limerick; Rathmooley excavated, are Cloghermore Cave, near Tralee (Connolly and and Cullen, Co. Tipperary; Kilmacomma and Knockmaon, Coyne 2005; see also Connolly this volume), and Beginish Co. Waterford; Scattery Island, Co. Clare, and four hoards Island, in Valentia Harbour (O’Kelly 1956). The cave at with county provenances only, two from Cork and one each Cloghermore, in which a number of Viking burials of late from Limerick and Clare (see Sheehan 1998, 162-63, where ninth/early tenth century date were excavated, was clearly selected references are cited). In addition, there is a small used by a Hiberno-Scandinavian group. The background and Kerry’s Viking-Age Silver: A Legacy of as Antiquarian, andofDealers number of single-inds well as anCollectors assemblage Viking- John character of the Beginish site has recently been re-interpreted silver from the recently discovered Scandinavian longphort by Sheehan, Stummann Hansen and Ó Corráin (Sheehan et at Woodstown, Co. Waterford. al 2001), who argued that it was an enduring Viking base a cultural transformation from being ‘Vikings’ to being ‘Hiberno-Scandinavians’ and, undoubtedly by then, they had as much in common with the Irish as they had with the populations of Norway or Denmark.

and primarily functioned as a maritime haven or way-station en route from the Hiberno-Scandinavian settlements of Cork and Limerick.

Viking-age silver Silver was the principal medium of economic exchange throughout the Viking World which, ultimately, stretched from Russia in the east to the North American continent in the west. Though coin usage and minting did develop at different times in different parts of this vast region, generally silver was used as currency in non-numismatic form in a bullion or metal-weight economy, while imported coins were generally valued by weight. Therefore ornaments of various types, as well as ingots, sometimes cut-up into what is termed ‘hacksilver’, served as a form of bullion currency. Ornaments, such as arm- and neck-rings as well as brooches, also served a dual purpose in that they could also be used as display and status items. But an assortment of hacked-up ornaments and ingots could be just as valuable to a Scandinavian, in commercial terms, as a pristine neck-ring. It is largely due to the fact that Viking settlement in Ireland adopted a predominantly urban form, combined with the fact that the activities of the Hiberno-Scandinavians became increasingly commercial in character, that very large amounts of Viking-age silver have been found in this country. In fact, well in excess of one hundred hoards of ninth- and 20

Most of these Munster hoards have been found in counties Cork and Limerick, probably relecting to an extent the presence of the Viking towns there. Kerry, being at a remove from the Viking urban centres and their cultural and economic hinterlands, is not particularly rich in the silver that drove the Hiberno-Scandinavian economy, with only two hoards and one apparent single-ind on record from the county. Taken together, however, these form a group of interesting inds that throw light on aspects of the nature and extent of HibernoScandinavian involvement in Kerry. The hoards are those from Cloghermore and Fenit, while the single-ind is provenanced only to ‘near Ballybunion’. In addition, a Viking-age silver arm-ring, previously published as being from Tralee (Day Catalogue 66. no. 457; Graham-Campbell 1976, 72), may now be expunged from the record and identiied as the ‘near Ballybunion’ ind.

The Cloghermore hoard The hoard from Cloghermore Cave has recently been fully published (Sheehan 2005) and is further considered by Michael Connolly in this volume. Consequently it is dealt with in only a summary manner here. It consists of six items, comprising two ingots and four large fragments of arm-rings (Figure 2). The ingots, small oblong bars of silver, are of some interest representing as they do a simple means of storing bullion in late ninth and tenth century Ireland. The arm-ring fragments

Kerry’s Viking-Age Silver: A Legacy of Antiquarians, Collectors and Dealers - John Sheehan

n Sheehan

Figure 1: Distribution of Viking-Age hoards from Munster.

Figure 2: The Viking-age hoard from Cloghermore Cave, Co. Kerry (Photo: Tomás Tyner, Audio-Visual Services, University College Cork).

21

Kerry’s Viking-Age Silver: A Legacy of Antiquarians, Collectors and Dealers - John Sheehan are classic examples of Hiberno-Scandinavian broad-band arm-rings. The nature of a metal-weight economy sometimes necessitated the reduction of ornaments to hack-silver, and examples of broad-band arm-rings reduced to this form occur in many hoards in Ireland. Silver arm-rings were by far the most common products of Ireland’s Hiberno-Scandinavian silver-working tradition, which was at its height between c.850 and c.950, but the most important of these in numerical terms is the broad-band type, which occur in twenty-nine hoards from Ireland. These rings are also known from Britain and Norway, including a spectacular new ind from Huxley, Cheshire, which contains twenty examples (Sheehan 2009). The occurrence of broad-band arm-rings alongside coins in a number of hoards from Ireland, Britain and Scandinavia indicates that the majority of these rings were produced during the ifty-year period between c.880 and c.930. They appear to have been primarily manufactured for the storage and circulation of silver as a form of currency in Ireland’s metalweight economy, though it is very likely that they also served as status objects. The distributional evidence from Ireland suggests that these types of arm-rings were manufactured there, most probably in Hiberno-Scandinavian Dublin. Given that it has no coin content, the date of the Cloghermore hoard may only be approximated from the evidence of the deposition dates of other related hoards. Taking the proposed date-ranges for broad-band arm-rings and for ingots together, a date for the assembly and deposition of the Cloghermore hoard within the period between c.880 and c.940 seems likely, though it is seems more probable that the deposition of the hoard lies within the latter part of this range, possibly c.910-940. In its broad Munster context, the Cloghermore hoard shares most in common, structurally, functionally, chronologically and culturally, with the inds from Carraig Aille II, Co. Limerick, and an unlocalised Co. Cork hoard, known as Cork no. 2. It seems possible that the three hoards ultimately relate to and derive from Dublin and its economic sphere of inluence, rather than from the Munster Hiberno-Scandinavian urban settlements. The importance of the Cloghermore hoard, in terms of its proposed connections with the broadly contemporary Carraig Aille II and Cork no.2 inds, is that, unlike them, it derives from a well-excavated and culturally deined archaeological context. The cave at Cloghermore has produced a signiicant quantity of Scandinavian and Hiberno22

Scandinavian material, such as, for example, some of its glass beads and ringed pins. It seems obvious, on present evidence, that the range of material culture represented here probably derived from or through Dublin, and the character and contents of the silver hoard support this hypothesis. As such, the Cloghermore hoard, as well as the Carraig Aille II and Co. Cork no. 2 inds, serve as a reminder of the economic primacy of Dublin in Viking-age Ireland. The ind context of the Cloghermore hoard, a cave, is unusual. The only other cave from Ireland from which a Viking-age nonnumismatic silver hoard has been recorded is Dunmore, Co. Kilkenny, where, as was the case at Cloghermore, quantities of human bones were also present. Interestingly, a second hoard has quite recently been found at this cave (Bornholdt Collins 2010). It should also be noted that a gold broad-band arm-ring was found during excavations in a cave at Edenvale, near Ennis, Co. Clare, in the early twentieth century, and, interestingly, its form of concealment was quite similar to that used in Cloghermore, it having been placed in a recess of the cave’s main chamber, lying between small stones and covered by a slab (Scharff et al 1906, 67-9). Therefore, even though it only constitutes a single-ind, it shares with the hoards from Cloghermore and Dunmore the vital characteristic of concealment and should be considered alongside them. It is tempting to associate the deposition of a Viking-age silver hoard in a cave with ritual activity, especially when there are also quantities of human bones present. However, despite this prospect, Viking-age silver hoards are only very rarely found in demonstrably ritual contexts (Graham-Campbell & Sheehan 2009, 88-90), and there is no absolutely clear example of the ritual deposition of a hoard in a cave, either in Ireland or elsewhere in the Viking world. It seems more likely that the Cloghermore hoard is a standard economic deposit, deliberately concealed with the intention of recovery.

The Fenit hoard Unfortunately, practically nothing is on record concerning the ind context of the important hoard from Fenit. Discovered shortly before 1880, this consists of a neck-ring and a plain arm-ring (Figures 3-4). The latter object, now lost, may be identiied as a broad-band arm-ring of the same type, though plain, as those represented in hack-silver form in the Cloghermore hoard. The neck-ring is formed of three tapered rods, twisted together. At one terminal one of the rods is

Kerry’s Viking-Age Silver: A Legacy of Antiquarians, Collectors and Dealers - John Sheehan extended and bent to form a loop, while the other terminal takes the form of a solid, dome-shaped knob.

The hoard irst came to public notice at a meeting of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland that took place in Cork in October 1880, when Alderman Robert Day, a well-known Cork collector of antiquities, exhibited the artefacts. He gave the following account (Day 1882, 346-7): I am also enabled, by the courtesy of their lady owner, to exhibit a silver armlet and bracelet which have quite recently been dug up in the county Kerry. I regret that I cannot now give the detailed particulars of their inding. The bracelet is a plain, heavy, lattened penannular band of silver, which was probably worn as such. Similar objects have been found from time to time in the country, and were at one time supposed to have passed current as ring money. Vide papers read before the Royal Irish Academy in May and June 1836, by Sir William Betham, where exactly similar objects are igured. The longer of the two is of twisted silver, and may have been worn as an armilla or necklet; it tapers from the points where it is brought together, and secured with a silver loop, and swells out to its fullest proportions in the centre. This is an extremely ine example of its kind.

The Fenit neck-ring initially made its way to America when William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951), the wealthy newspaper magnate, acquired it for his renowned private collection of European art and antiquities. It seems possible that Permain, the dealer who purchased the hoard in London in 1913, was acting as a buyer for Hearst. He certainly served in this capacity later on when, for instance, he acquired Canova’s Venus Italica for him (Caruso and Hahn 1993, 828). (This remarkable statue, incidentally, had for almost a century prior to this formed part of the private collection of the Petty-Fitzmaurices, of Kerry’s Lansdowne Estate, having been obtained by them from Napoleon’s brother, Lucien). It appears certain that Hearst acquired the Fenit neck-ring during or shortly after 1913. This was during the early stages of a period, lasting for several decades, when he assembled one of the largest and most impressive private collections ever brought together. Its high points included classical vases, medieval armour, Limoges enamels, Georgian silver and medieval and later tapestries, and it has been claimed that Hearst single-handedly accounted for some twenty-ive per cent of the world's art-market during this time.

Although Day noted that he could not then report on the hoard’s ind circumstances he, unfortunately, is not known to have ever done so. Consequently, we know nothing about the precise ind-spot or the circumstances that led to the discovery of this important ind. He did, however, acquire the ind and over thirty years later it appears, provenanced to Fenit, in the sale of his collection in London (Day Auction Catalogue 1913, 66, pl. xix). At this auction the hoard was purchased by William Permain, a London-based international dealer in art and antiquities. He appears to have split the hoard, and an arm-ring which almost certainly may be identiied as the one from Fenit later surfaces in Sotheby’s catalogue of an anonymous collection that was auctioned on December 6th 1920 (lot 194). The entry appears as: A PENNAULAR ARMLET, IN SILVER, 2 ¾ in. broad; of massive lat rectangular section, and of rough oval shape; the ends taper and are squared; the edges slightly beaten up; from Ireland. An extremely rare object.

Figure 3: Robert Day’s drawing of the Fenit hoard (Reproduced by permission of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland ©).

The present location of this object is unknown. 23

Kerry’s Viking-Age Silver: A Legacy of Antiquarians, Collectors and Dealers - John Sheehan

Figure 4: The neck-ring from the Fenit hoard (© Walters Art Gallery).

24

Kerry’s Viking-Age Silver: A Legacy of Antiquarians, Collectors and Dealers - John Sheehan

Figure 5: The neck-ring from the Hunt collection (© The Hunt Museum). Hearst’s business empire was threatened with bankruptcy in 1938 and consequently it undertook a court-mandated reorganization. Many of its assets were liquidated, and Hearst was forced to sell off a great deal of his private collection. At the various auctions that followed many of his pieces were acquired by prestige galleries and museums such as the Louvre, Paris and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. During this period the Fenit neck-ring was acquired by the Walters Art Gallery, Maryland, having been purchased at a New York sale of the Hearst collection in 1941 by a group of philanthropists who presented it to the museum as a gift (Garside 1980, no. 413), where it remains on permanent display. The Fenit neck-ring is unusual in form in that, in addition to its terminal hook-fastening, it features a dome-shaped knob terminal. While the former feature occurs on many Vikingage neck-rings, the latter one is certainly very unusual.

Among the few known occurrences of this general type of arrangement, for instance, is the neck-ring from Mönsterås, Småland, Sweden, which has a globular terminal (Hårdh 1996, 46, ig.5). The closest known parallels for the domeshaped terminal on the Fenit neck-ring, however, from anywhere in the Viking world, are found on a neck-ring in the Hunt Museum, Limerick (Sheehan 2002, 113), where both terminals are of this form (Figure 5). However, the history of the early ownership of this ind, prior to its acquisition by John Hunt (1900-76), suggests a possibility that these terminals may actually be modern additions to this Viking-age ring. For this reason, given the rare and unusual nature of the terminaltypes they share in common, it is necessary to consider the Hunt Museum neck-ring within the context of the potential light it may throw, or otherwise, on the authenticity of the Fenit ring. If one of these neck-rings can be demonstrated to be of dubious form or background, then the other may come under serious scrutiny. 25

Kerry’s Viking-Age Silver: A Legacy of Antiquarians, Collectors and Dealers - John Sheehan

There is no unequivocal record concerning how, or from whom, John Hunt acquired the Viking-age neck-ring for his collections. In the early 1970s, however, he spoke to James Graham-Campbell about the matter. Graham-Campbell, then an assistant lecturer in the Department of Archaeology, University College Dublin, was in the process of compiling information on Viking-age silver from Ireland and visited Hunt in his home, by invitation, to view relevant material from his collections. Regarding the neck-ring with the dome-shaped terminals, Hunt stated that it had been found in Ireland and that it derived from the collection of the Rt. Rev. Monsignor James O’Laverty (1828-1906), of Holywood, Co. Down. Whatever about the veracity of the former claim, concerning the provenance of the object, the latter one cannot presently be substantiated and no such ring is listed in the catalogue of the sale of the O’Laverty Collection, which was held in Belfast in 1906. It is possible to elucidate the background of the Hunt Museum neck-ring, to some extent, by using information retained in the archives of the Hunt Museum itself, namely an album of photographs, compiled c.1920, of the J.H. Ball Collection that was housed in Hertfordshire County Museum, St Alban’s, along with a copy of a document entitled Catalogue of the John Ball Collection of Antiquities now on loan to The Herefordshire County Museum St. Albans, retained in the National Museum of Ireland. Mary Cahill (2005) has recently published an important study of this individual, John Henry Ball (1883-1938). He was in the employ of the Marquess of Londonderry for a time, possibly as a chauffeur, served as a Royal Naval Air Service oficer during the First World War, and subsequently went on to become a very successful arms dealer. He amassed a very large private collection, including ine and decorative arts, furniture, armour, ceramics and archaeological material, much of which was on loan to the St Alban's museum. It is known that he was occasionally somewhat dubious in his dealings with antiquities, and that he was not adverse to ‘improving’ or even forging archaeological material. Cahill’s paper fully explores his involvement, for instance, in the production of a collection of fake gold ornaments of purported Irish provenance, including the socalled Strangford Lough hoard. The St Alban’s Ball Collection album includes a photograph of two silver neck-rings. One is undoubtedly the neck-ring 26

now in the Hunt Museum, complete with its very distinctive terminals, and is captioned ‘Viking neck torque of plaited silver wire’; the second ring, which is also distinctive in form, is captioned ‘Neck torque of silver. Early Iron Age. Valladolid, Spain’. The Viking-age neck-ring is also included in the aforementioned Catalogue of the John Ball Collection, where the full entry reads ‘Viking neck Torque of plaited silver wire. 1 ◊ section bracelet. 1 earring all silver’. What may be deduced from this information is that the Hunt Collection neck-ring was found sometime before c.1920, by which time it formed part of the Ball Collection. The association of the ring with Ball, given the very unusual form of its terminals, is important given his demonstrable propensity to forge and alter archaeological objects. It seems possible that the domeshaped knob terminals were additions designed by Ball, perhaps to ‘improve’ an incomplete object. While there is little doubt that the Hunt Museum neck-ring is a genuine Vikingage object, some doubt might be cast on the authenticity of its terminals. The potential relevance of this object to the Fenit neck-ring, of course, is that the best parallels for the latter’s dome-shaped terminal are found on the former. Prior to considering the issue raised above – the authenticity of the terminals of the Fenit and Hunt Museum neck-rings – the question of how and when John Hunt acquired the Ball neck-ring should be addressed as it is also of relevance in connection with the next ind of Viking-age silver from Kerry to be considered in this paper, that from ‘near Ballybunion’. Ball died in 1938, and some of his collection in St Alban’s was dispersed in 1939. The remainder was auctioned in London at Sotheby’s, in 1949, and at Christies, in 1956. The Viking-age neck-ring does not feature in the catalogues of either these sales, so it appears reasonable to assume that it was included in the apparently more casual dispersal of objects from the museum in St Albans in 1939. This group of objects included antiquities from Ireland and the identity of the sole purchaser was recorded, perhaps not surprisingly, as John Hunt (MacGregor 1987, 14). During the following year, 1940, Hunt offered a high proportion, if not most, of his newly acquired material from the ex. Ball Collection for sale to the National Museum of Ireland. Much of the material had Ulster provenances, suggesting that it had been acquired by Ball during the period when he worked for the Marquess of Londonderry, whose seat was at Mount Stewart, Co. Down. A list of the material

Kerry’s Viking-Age Silver: A Legacy of Antiquarians, Collectors and Dealers - John Sheehan for sale, now referred to as the ‘Ball/Hunt inventory’, was compiled in the National Museum during 1940 and this has recently been published by Cahill (2005, 103-108). Interestingly, the silver neck-ring is not included on the list, suggesting that Hunt had decided to retain it for his personal collection. In any event, the National Museum’s efforts to purchase this collection were unsuccessful and the material was returned to Hunt in 1948. The irst veriiable re-surfacing of the Hunt Museum neckring following c.1920, when it had been photographed in St Albans, is when the two ex. Ball Collection silver neck-rings are depicted in a British Museum photograph, dated 1950. The accompanying note reads: Said to have been found in N. Ireland. Brought in by Mr Hewett, dealer, for export. Licence not recommended. Should therefore still be in England. Mr Hewett may be identiied as Kenneth John Hewett, a wellknown London-based dealer in ethographic art and antiquities who dealt with museums in Britain and the United States throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Neither his provenancing of the rings to ‘N. Ireland’, nor the implied suggestion that together they formed a hoard, have any veriiable authority given that it is known, on the basis of the caption to the c.1920 photograph, that one of the neck-rings is of Spanish provenance. However, it is possible that Hewett’s north of Ireland provenance for the Viking-age neck-ring is genuine given that it derived from the Ball Collection within which a very high proportion of the Irish material, as inventoried in the National Museum in 1940, is of Ulster provenance. In 1951, having failed to obtain a licence to export the ex. Ball Collection neck-rings, Hewett offered the Viking-age ring for sale to the British Museum, stating that it derived from the O’Laverty Collection. Even though Hewett’s purported association between this ring and the O’Laverty Collection is unveriiable, as has been pointed out above on the basis that it does not feature in O’Laverty’s 1906 sale catalogue, it is presumably possible that some of O’Laverty’s items were disposed of during his lifetime and, therefore, would not have featured in this sale. This possibility, along with the Ulster background of much of the Irish material in the Ball Collection, might indicate that the ind-location of the Hunt Museum neck-ring was indeed in the north of Ireland.

It is interesting to note that the same alleged O’Laverty link with the neck-ring was offered to Graham-Campbell by John Hunt over twenty years later. It is known that there was a business connection between Hunt and Hewett (Cahill 2005, 98, fn.51), with Hewett supplying antiquities to Hunt, and it seems probable that in his 1950-51 dealings with the British Museum he was acting on Hunt’s behalf. If so, Hewett’s purported O’Laverty link presumably originated with Hunt, but it is not known from where he got it. The British Museum, in any case, did not acquire the objects and the Viking-age neck-ring appears to have returned to Hunt’s collection in Ireland. It was certainly there in the early 1970s, when it was examined by Graham-Campbell, and it now forms part of the collections in the Hunt Museum (Sheehan 2002, 113). The ultimate fate of the Spanish neck-ring, which is of no obvious relevance to this paper, is unknown. Perhaps Hewett found a buyer for it. The potential relevance of the Hunt Museum neck-ring to the Fenit neck-ring is that the best parallels for the latter’s very unusual dome-shaped terminal are found on the former. Is it possible that both rings were ‘improved’ by the same hand in order to increase their value to collectors? This seems unlikely, however, on a number of grounds. Firstly, the Kerry ind was exhibited in Cork in 1880, shortly after its discovery, complete with the dome-shaped terminal (see Figure 3). Given the time factor involved, it seems there would have been little opportunity available to perform an alteration to the object. Secondly, there is nothing on record to suggest that there was any connection between Robert Day, who is associated with the Fenit object, and J.H. Ball, either in relation to this matter or any other. Thirdly, the Fenit hoard was exhibited in Cork three years before J.H. Ball was actually born, making impossible any connection between Ball and the Fenit neck-ring terminal. It must be concluded, therefore, that there is no connection between these two inds and that, consequently, the potentially dubious background of the Hunt Museum neck-ring cannot be taken as an indication that there is anything questionable about the form of the Fenit neck-ring. There is a thirty years gap between the initial publication of the Fenit neck-ring and the irst recorded existence of what ultimately became the Hunt Museum neck-ring (in the St Albans photograph). If the terminals of the Hunt Museum 27

Kerry’s Viking-Age Silver: A Legacy of Antiquarians, Collectors and Dealers - John Sheehan ring are fake additions, designed by Ball, it is perfectly conceivable that he found inspiration for their form in Robert Day’s published illustration of the Fenit neck-ring (Day 1882, ig.4). Indeed, he may also have viewed the Fenit ring in 1913 at Sotheby’s sale of the Day Collection, though it has not been established that he was at this auction (Cahill 2005, 69). The best way to inally resolve the issue is to subject both the Fenit and the Hunt Museum neck-rings to XRF-analyses, a project which the author hopes to initiate shortly (subject to the cooperation of the Hunt Museum and the Walters Art Gallery). If the terminals of either of the neck-rings are fake additions this would become evident, as the metallurgical composition of the silver used to manufacture them would be different from the composition of the Viking-age rods that form the hoops of the rings. If the silver compositions of the hoops and terminals are the same the implication would be that the rings, in their entirety, are of Viking-age date. The author expects this would be the case in the instance of the Fenit neck-ring, and it is not inconceivable that the Hunt Museum neck-ring would also prove to be a genuine Viking-age object. Neck-rings occur throughout the Viking World, though they are a particular feature of Scandinavia itself from where several hundred examples are on record (Hårdh 1996, 41-83). They are found both in hoards and as single-inds. It is likely that they served as status symbols in Scandinavian society though, like the silver arm-rings discussed above in relation to the Cloghermore Cave hoard, they could also be reduced to hack-silver for commercial convenience when occasion demanded. They were manufactured throughout the period of the Viking Age, though the majority of examples appear to date to the tenth century. A number of Viking-age neck-rings are known from outside of Scandinavia, though there are only a few examples on record from Ireland. One of these was found at Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare, another is provenanced to Athlone, Co. Westmeath, while a third forms part of an unlocalised hoard from Co. Galway. The latter is of simple form, and may well be of Hiberno-Scandinavian manufacture, while the Athlone and Miltown Malbay examples share certain characteristics with neck-rings from Norway and, on the balance of probability, seem likely to be tenth-century imports. It is dificult to propose a hypothesis which explains the occurrence of the Fenit hoard on the coastline of Kerry, on the north side of Tralee Bay. There is no historical record 28

of any Scandinavian or Hiberno-Scandinavian presence or settlement in this area. Archaeological evidence from elsewhere, however, demonstrates a Viking presence along Ireland's Atlantic coastline at various places and times. It is, therefore, quite possible that the Fenit hoard may represent Viking activity in this area. It is equally plausible, however, as has been suggested in the consideration of many hoards from elsewhere in Ireland, that the Fenit ind represents Irish ownership of Viking-age silver.

The ‘near Ballybunion’ find

Robert Day, who was involved in the early history of the Fenit hoard, was also associated with the only recorded example of a single-ind of Viking-age silver from Co. Kerry, an example of a fairly unusual type of arm-ring found at an unrecorded location near Ballybunion. The evidence for this ind is contained in the minutes of a meeting of the Cork Cuverian Society, a celebrated committee of the Royal Cork Institution (Cuvierian Society Minutes, 11th October 1864): Mr R. Day Jun. exhibited a silver armlet undecorated but joined at either end by a succession of spiral ornaments, found last year near Ballybunion, Co. Kerry. Research by Dr Joan Rockley has indicated that this is very likely to be the ring, weighing 1oz. 3 dwt (c.36 gm), which is known to have been purchased by Day from Hilliards, the Tralee jewellers, in July 1864, the transaction being recorded in Day’s account books. A drawing of the ring is included in an album containing a collection of images from the Day Collection, now retained in the archives of the Irish Antiquities Division of the National Museum of Ireland (Figure 6a). This is captioned: ‘Silver Armlet found near Ballybunion C°. Kerry. July 1864. Wt. 1oz 3 dwt. D.’, with the inal letter presumably representing the initial of Day’s surname. The Ballybunion arm-ring remained in Day’s possession for the rest of his life and features in the auction catalogue of the sale of his collection at Sotheby’s of London in 1913 (Day Auction Catalogue 1913, 66, lot 457, pl. xvii), where it is described as: A large armlet of silver, about 3 5/8 in. long; the hoop of quadrangular section and diminishing in thickness

Kerry’s Viking-Age Silver: A Legacy of Antiquarians, Collectors and Dealers - John Sheehan towards the ends, where it is drawn out into thin circular wire which originally formed a sort of hook-and-eye fastening; near Tralee, Co. Kerry; very rare. The ‘near Tralee’ provenance assigned to the ring here was clearly an error, as the illustration of the object published in the auction catalogue (Figure 6b) demonstrates that this is the same ring as that which features in the earlier Day album, where its ind-spot was noted as being ‘near Ballybunion’. In addition, the description of the Ballybunion ring exhibited to the Cuvierian Society in Cork in 1864 is fully in accordance with the 1913 description of the ‘Tralee’ ring. It seems likely that this confusion of provenance resulted from the fact that the Ballybunion ring was purchased by Day in Tralee, as is recorded in his account books, and that therefore he came to

associate it with that town. At the Sotheby’s 1913 auction the Ballybunion arm-ring was purchased by W.T. Ready, a well known London dealer. While it is not known exactly who, or how many collectors, subsequently acquired the ring, it was deinitely obtained at some stage by J.H. Ball, the collector already noted above in relation to the Hunt Museum neck-ring. This is evident because it appears in the National Museum of Ireland’s inventory of the ex. Ball Collection material that was offered for sale to the museum by John Hunt in 1940 (Cahill 2005, 105). The entry appears as: ‘No. 206. Bracelet. Silver. Kerry. nr. Tralee’, and this almost certainly is to be equated with the ‘1 ◊ section bracelet’ included in the Catalogue of the John Ball Collection of Antiquities now on loan to The Herefordshire County Museum St. Albans, where the ‘◊’ symbol refers to the lozenge-shaped cross-section of the ring. In the event, the National Museum’s efforts to purchase this collection were unsuccessful and the material was returned to Hunt in 1948. However, the photographic record of the collection made in the museum in 1940 includes an image of this arm-ring, numbered 206, with ‘Day Sale 457’ written on the back. From the photograph it is clear that this is the Ballybunion arm-ring, and that its terminals had been modiied and tidied up since it was photographed for the catalogue of Day’s 1913 auction. This work is likely to have been the handiwork of Ball who had a reputation, as noted above, for ‘improving’ archaeological objects. It is not known what Hunt did with the Ballybunion arm-ring following its return to him in 1948. In 1968, however, Dr Kurt Ticher, an expert on early modern silver who also occasionally dealt in antiquities, sent a number of photographs to William Seaby, Director of the Ulster Museum, one of which featured ‘a silver Viking armlet of square section and said to have come from Tralee’. Subsequently Seaby sent a letter to John Hunt enquiring if he still had this ring, among other objects, and if they were for sale. Hunt’s reply, which did not address Seaby’s question, included an attached document which contained the following information:

Figure 6a: Drawing of the Ballybunion rod armring (from Day album, Irish Antiquities Division, National Museum of Ireland); 6b: photograph of the arm-ring from Sotheby’s Day auction catalogue (1913).

A silver bracelet formed from a tapering bar of diamond section, thickest at the centre, the ends recurved and twisted round each other. … The silver bracelet said to have been found at Tralee.

29

Kerry’s Viking-Age Silver: A Legacy of Antiquarians, Collectors and Dealers - John Sheehan The full texts of the Seaby/Hunt correspondence is transcribed by Cahill (2005, 78-9). The Ballybunion arm-ring was not seen by Graham-Campbell when he inspected the Hunt Collection in the early 1970s and its present whereabouts are unknown. It may be that it was amongst a number of antiquities stolen from Hunt c.1953, one of which subsequently turned up in New York, though, if so, it seems unlikely that he could have described the ring in so detailed a manner in his 1968 correspondence with Seaby. On the basis of the illustrations of the Ballybunion armring (Figures 6a,b) it may be identiied as an example of a Scandinavian rod arm-ring. Arm-rings of this type are formed of a single rod, usually of circular or lozenge-shaped cross-section, and are most commonly of annular form; the terminals are normally wound simply around the opposite side, although in some cases they are intertwined to form a spiral-knot. Unlike the broad-band arm-rings discussed above, rod arm-rings are normally plain and undecorated. Some examples occur in gold, such as the spectacular example in the Hoen hoard, from Norway, though examples in silver are of far more common occurrence. They are regular features of the Viking-age hoards of Scandinavia, but are of much less frequent occurrence in the western Viking world. The overall hoard evidence indicates that they originated in ninth-century Scandinavia, even if they did not come into widespread use before the mid-tenth century. It seems likely that arm-rings of this type found in Britain and Ireland derive from Scandinavia, perhaps speciically from Norway. There is an example of a rod arm-ring in the Cuerdale hoard, from Lancashire, and also in the hoard from near Deptford, London, inds which are coin-dated to c.905-10 and c.935 respectively. There is also an example in the Skaill hoard, from Orkney, which was deposited c.960-80. The presence of the rod arm-ring in the Cuerdale ind is of importance in that it demonstrates the currency of the type in the west during the late ninth/early tenth century. Given that much of the nonnumismatic element of this very large hoard is of HibernoScandinavian origin and that, for this reason, most of it appears almost certainly to have been assembled in Ireland, it is likely that the Cuerdale rod arm-ring originated there. From Ireland, apart from the Ballybunion example, rod arm-rings are on record from three hoards, those from Garron Point, Co. Antrim, Macroom, Co. Cork, and Rathmooley, Co. Tipperary. 30

In addition, a small lead alloy example was found during the excavation of Hiberno-Scandinavian Dublin, at Winetavern Street. In summary, the Viking-age rod arm-ring from near Ballybunion is probably of Scandinavian origin and dates to the later ninth or irst half of the tenth century.

Conclusions The study of Viking-age silver from Kerry, as other regions of Ireland, is of interest in a number of respects. The most important of these, of course, is the archaeological information that is yielded concerning the activities and impact of the Hiberno-Scandinavians. However, the study is also important in terms of the light it throws on the poor appreciation and understanding that the antiquarians, collectors and dealers of the past had regarding the overall importance of archaeological artefacts. Clearly, they often saw their value purely in terms of the objects themselves, as display items that could be bought and sold, assembled and dispersed, altered and adjusted, without any need to adequately describe and record them for posterity. Practically no efforts were made to investigate or even note the precise ind-locations and associations of the objects, and they were often recorded, if at all, in a rather cursory manner. Likewise, there was little recognition of the rights that the people of a region, or even of the nation, had towards maintaining and understanding their own heritage. It is, of course, unfair to judge past practises by the standards of the present. Encouragement for the future, however, can be taken from the fact that the only ind of Viking-age silver from Kerry that remains in Ireland, available for public appreciation in Kerry County Museum, is its most recent ind, the Cloghermore hoard. The range of Viking-age silver artefact-types represented among the hoards and single-inds from Kerry is of some interest, with both Scandinavian and Hiberno-Scandinavian types present. The arm-rings in the Fenit and Cloghermore hoards are typical Hiberno-Scandinavian types, probably made in Dublin, while the ring from near Ballybunion is more likely to be of Scandinavian origin, perhaps from Norway. The cultural background of the Fenit neck-ring is less certain, and it is not presently possible to assign it to either the Scandinavian or Hiberno-Scandinavian silver-working traditions. It is not unusual to ind both Scandinavian and Hiberno-Scandinavian silver objects within the same region,

Kerry’s Viking-Age Silver: A Legacy of Antiquarians, Collectors and Dealers - John Sheehan and it should be remembered that their value was determined by their bullion weight, not their cultural background.

Acknowledgements The author is very grateful to Mary Cahill, Irish Antiquities Division, National Museum of Ireland, James Graham-Campbell, formerly Institute of Archaeology, University College London, Dorothy Redmond, Hunt Museum, Limerick, Peter Woodman, formerly Department of Archaeology, University College Cork, and C. Grifith Mann, formerly Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, for information relating to various aspects of this paper. He is also thankful to Nick Hogan, Department of Archaeology, University College Cork, for preparing Figs.1 and 6.

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Kerry’s Viking-Age Silver: A Legacy of Antiquarians, Collectors and Dealers - John Sheehan

BIBLIOGRAPHY Bornholdt Collins, K. 2010. ‘The Dunmore Cave (2) hoard and the role of coins in the tenth-century Hiberno-Scandinavian economy’, in J. Sheehan & D. Ó Corráin (eds), The Viking Age: Ireland and the West. Proceedings of the Fifteenth Viking Congress. Dublin, pp. 19-46. Cahill, M. 2005. ‘The strange case of the Strangford Lough hoard.’ Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 135, 5-118. Caruso, C. & Hahn, K. 1993. ‘The third version of Canova’s Venus.’ The Burlington Magazine 135, no.1089, 828. Connolly, M. & Coyne, F. 2005. Underworld: Death and Burial in Cloghermore Cave, Co. Kerry. Bray. Cuvierian Society Minutes. Minute Books of the Cuvierian Society, Cork, 1835-1878. University College Cork Ms. U221. Day, R. 1882. ‘Proceedings.’ Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland 15 (1879-82), 346-47. Day Catalogue. 1913. Catalogue of the Irish stone and bronze implements, personal ornaments &c. formed by the wellknown antiquary Robert Day which will be sold by auction, May 19th-22nd 1913. Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge, London. Garside, A. 1980. Jewellery: Ancient and Modern. New York. Graham-Campbell, J. 1976. ‘The Viking-age slver hoards of Ireland’, in B. Almqvist & D. Greene (eds), Proceedings of the Seventh Viking Congress, Dublin, 1973. Dublin, pp. 3174. Graham-Campbell, J. & Sheehan, J. 2009. ‘Viking-age gold and silver from Irish crannogs and other watery places.’ Journal of Irish Archaeology 18, 77-93. Hårdh, B. 1996. Silver in the Viking Age: a regional economic study. Stockholm. MacGregor, A. 1987. Antiquities from Europe and the Near East in the collection of the Lord McAlpine of West Green. Oxford. Ó Corráin, D. 2009. ‘The Vikings and Iveragh’, in J. Crowley & J. Sheehan (eds), The Iveragh Peninsula: A Cultural Atlas of the Ring of Kerry. Cork, pp. 141-47. O’Kelly, M.J. 1956. ‘An island settlement at Beginish, Co. Kerry.’ Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 57c, 159-94. Scharff, R. E. et al. 1906. ‘The exploration of the caves of Co. Clare.’ Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy 33b, 1-76. Sheehan, J. 1998. ‘Viking-age hoards from Munster: a regional tradition?’, in M.A. Monk & J. Sheehan (eds), Early Medieval Munster: Archaeology, History and Society. Cork, pp. 147-63. Sheehan, J. 2002. ‘Neck-ring’, in H. Armitage (ed.), The Hunt Museum: essential guide. London, p. 113.

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Sheehan, J. 2005. ‘The Silver Hoard’, in M. Connolly & F. Coyne, Underworld: Death and Burial in Cloghermore Cave, Co. Kerry. Dublin, pp. 135-54. Sheehan, J. 2009. ‘The Huxley hoard and Hiberno-Scandinavian arm-rings’, in J. Graham-Campbell & R. Philpott (eds), The Huxley Viking Hoard: Scandinavian Settlement in the Northwest. Liverpool, pp. 57-68. Sheehan, J., Stummann Hansen, S. and Ó Corráin, D., 2001. ‘A Viking Age maritime haven: a reassessment of the island settlement at Beginish, Co. Kerry.’ Journal of Irish Archaeology 10, 93-119.

Plunder or Funerary Offerings? Burial, Ritual and Artefact Deposition in Cloghermore Cave - Michael Connolly

Plunder or Funerary Offerings? Burial, Ritual and Artefact Deposition in Cloghermore Cave MICHAEL CONNOLLY Cloghermore Cave has been accessed by local people and caving enthusiasts for at least the last 70 years and probably longer. However, it was only in 1998 that the presence of skeletal material within the two end chambers of the system came to general notice. Given the disturbance of the site and the shattered and fragmentary nature of much of the visible skeletal material Dúchas - The Heritage Service (National Monuments Service, DoEHLG) decided to fund the excavation of the two chambers over the course of two seasons in 1999 and 2000. The complete results of the excavation and analyses of the bone and artefact assemblages, which are now held in Kerry County Museum, were published in 2005 (Connolly & Coyne 2005).

Survey 6” Sheet No. 30, Co-ords: 799mm East, 101mm North, National Grid :Q906, 128). The cave system was surveyed by the Mid-West Caving Club, Limerick in 1983 and described as consisting of 375m of fossil passages which run in a northwest – south-east direction for around half its length before turning to run in a north-south direction for the remainder (Condell 1985, 52-53) (Figure 1). The cave system is under a large Waulsortian limestone reef measuring 308m east - west and 128m north – south, which is 51m O.D. at its highest point and affords expansive views in all directions (Plate 1). Entrance to the system was through a narrow cleft on the northern side of the reef. The route through the system from the existing entrance to the two bone bearing chambers at the southern end was dificult and it was clear that this was unlikely to be the route along which the bones placed in these chambers had been carried.

The Excavation It was decided to seek an alternative entrance at the southern end of the system with the help of a radio location device. This showed that the cave system terminated inside a D-shaped enclosure, which had been identiied in a sloping ield on the south side of the reef. Excavation in this area uncovered a vertical shaft composed of bedrock and dry stone walling 1.77m in depth (Plate 2). The shaft had been sealed with capstones and led into the most southerly chamber, ‘The Graveyard’ (the names of the two chambers were retained from the original survey by the Mid-West Caving Club).

Plate 1: Aerial view of the limestone reef at Cloghermore, the cave runs beneath this reef The site is situated in the townland of Cloghermore, Parish of Ballymacelligott and Barony of Trughanacmy, 6km east south-east of the town of Tralee in County Kerry (Ordnance

This chamber had suffered considerable disturbance and was littered with scattered human and animal skeletal material embedded in a brown soil. The inner chamber ‘The Two Star Temple’ was less disturbed with mainly human skeletal remains deposited in areas around the walls. There was little or no soil in this chamber, the loor composed of stone and calcite. 33

Plunder or Funerary Offerings? Burial, Ritual and Artefact Deposition in Cloghermore Cave - Michael Connolly

Figure 1: Plan of the southern end of the cave system

Excavation of ‘The Graveyard’ uncovered a large deposit of cremated animal bone within a horseshoe shaped setting of stone, lots of disarticulated human and animal bone and numerous artefacts, including amber beads associated with the cremation and a silver hoard comprising two silver ingots and four pieces of hack-silver arm-rings, two of which were linked together. Human and animal remains were also excavated in the entrance gallery and associated off-shoot passages, as were numerous artefacts. Excavation was also undertaken on the surface around the entrance shaft and across the bank of the D-shaped enclosure. Around the entrance shaft a number of pits, post-holes and slot trenches were uncovered (Plate 3) while it was also shown that the area around the entrance had been excavated out prior to the construction of the dry walled shaft and subsequently back illed. The site of a cremation pyre was also uncovered as part of this group of features. Excavation across the bank 34

of the enclosure showed that it was formed of two banks of earth and stone separated by a partially rock-cut ditch.

Plate 2: The entrance shaft to the cave system

Plunder or Funerary Offerings? Burial, Ritual and Artefact Deposition in Cloghermore Cave - Michael Connolly

Plate 3: Pits, post-holes, slot trenches and pyre site excavated on the surface around the entrance shaft

Interpretation Radiocarbon dating suggested that the cave had two distinct phases of burial. The irst phase could have began as early as the 5th century but is centred on the period 635 – 815 cal. AD, with the later phase of burial centring on the period 880 – 1010 cal. AD. The irst phase of burial involved the use of the cave as an ossuary by a local, native population. The burial rite was non-Christian and involved the de-leshing or burial of the bodies outside the cave for a time (until decomposition was complete) and the subsequent deposition of the disarticulated skeletal remains in piles on the stone loor of the cave. None of the artefacts from the cave can be linked to this phase of burial. The second phase of burial, centred on the 10th century, is represented only by burials from ‘The Graveyard’, the entrance gallery and off-shoot passages of this gallery. There are no later burials in the ‘Two Star Temple’. The earlier deposits of bone in these areas were covered by a deposit of brown clay imported from outside the cave prior to the insertion of the later burials. The only articulated skeletal remains from the cave (an adult male just inside the entrance (Plate 4) and the partially articulated remains of a child from an off-shoot passage of the entrance gallery) relate to this second phase of burial, which is clearly Viking in character.

Plate 4: The articulated male burial Only a small number of other burials can be assigned to this second phase of burial comprising two further adults - a prime adult male and female in ‘The Graveyard’. Two further child burials would also appear to belong to this group - a new born from the entrance gallery and a child aged 1-3 represented only by a torso in a pit in the entrance gallery. The presence of foot bones from other children and an adult in the pit with this torso is hard to explain but must surely represent a ritualistic treatment of the main child burial. A third adult burial may have been placed in the cave at this time and associated with the cremated animal bone deposit in ‘The Graveyard’ (Plate 5). The evidence of the amber beads associated with this deposit and portion of a cremated bone spindle whorl recovered from the pyre site on the surface would suggest that cremated human remains were possibly placed within the stone setting. These remains may well have been placed in a pottery vessel, as was common in Scandinavia, however, this vessel with its cremated remains may have been removed when the site was abandoned or during the periods of disturbance up to recent times since burial in the cave ceased. 35

Plunder or Funerary Offerings? Burial, Ritual and Artefact Deposition in Cloghermore Cave - Michael Connolly of cremated bone and charcoal in the ill suggests they were in use following the use of the pyre and had some ritual signiicance. A large posthole through the lue of the pyre site (Plate 3) also contained cremated bone and charcoal. This post seems to represent the last activity in the area and may have held a memorial post or grave marker. Charcoal from the remains of the pyre provided a date of 710-1000 cal. AD, clearly linking the later burials in the cave with the sealing of the entrance and the structures on the surface.

Plate 5: The cremation deposit inside the stone setting in ‘The Graveyard’ There can be little doubt that the activity within the D-shaped enclosure and some of the burials within the cave are coeval. Excavation on the surface (Plate 3) clearly shows that the pyre site uncovered here was the site of the cremation of the animal bones subsequently deposited within the stone setting in ‘The Graveyard’. Indeed cremated animal bone and a fragment of a cremated bone spindle whorl were recovered from the remains of the pyre. The excavation also indicates that wooden post and walled structures were erected immediately to the east of the cave entrance shaft, within the enclosure, prior to the construction of the pyre. The earliest structure would appear to be associated with a long slot trench, which contains two post holes (Plate 3). The exact purpose of such a structure is unclear but coupled with the postholes to the north-east it may have formed part of a lean-to or lat roofed structure on the site prior to the inal funeral rituals. Alternatively it could have served to divide the ritual area into two distinct parts, one for use prior to the burial the other for use in the burial rituals. In this way the wall would also help to screen off the cave entrance from view, while the ive postholes may independently have supported a temporary roofed structure or bier like platform. A smaller slot trench and its associated posts coupled with two postholes and a stake hole on the opposite side of the pyre site (Plate 3) may have held a platform over the ire or formed the corners of a wooden pyre structure. Other post holes suggest a deined passage type feature running to the entrance of the cave. There are also two large irregular depressions, which contained packing stones, charcoal and lecks of bone. Both are partially rock cut and may have held small standing stones or pillars. The presence of fragments 36

Burial Ritual & Cultic Practise Almost 17,000 animal bones were recovered from the excavations at Cloghermore, the largest samples coming from ‘The Graveyard’, entrance gallery, and associated features. In all areas cattle and sheep accounted for most of the bone with pig ranking third. As with the human bone, the animal bone was scattered throughout the cave and suffered much breakage and disturbance. As such, it is dificult to associate speciic bones, artefacts or burials, though the iron horse-bit is clearly associated with the horse remains, or to interpret the animal remains by area. However, the samples from two speciic areas are worthy of special comment, as they are isolated samples deliberately deposited – the pit containing the child burial and the cremation deposit within the stone setting in ‘The Graveyard’ (Plate 5). It has already been suggested that the treatment of the human remains in the pit - the torso of a child and bones from the feet of an adult and two further sub-adults - was probably ritualistic. The large animal bone assemblage from the pit was also unusual in that most came from young individuals, including two neo-natal lambs. The sample also contained the remains of a juvenile dog, and a single bone each from a horse and a cat. The presence of so many young animals in a pit with sub adult human bones is clearly of some ritual signiicance. The cremation deposit (Plate 5) contained burnt bone from the three main domesticates, sheep, cattle and pig, in that order. However, the deposit also contained a small sample of un-burnt bone, including two teeth and part of the mandible of a horse and the only bone of hare from the excavation. The inclusion of only parts of the horse and the presence of un-burnt teeth in a cremation deposit is very similar to that recorded by Gräslund (1980, 60) in parts of Sweden.

Plunder or Funerary Offerings? Burial, Ritual and Artefact Deposition in Cloghermore Cave - Michael Connolly There is no doubt that much of the animal remains represents food refuse, possibly consumed as part of ritual feasting prior to the insertion of burials within the cave. However, there is also the strong possibility that some of the bones represent food offerings placed in the cave with the dead. There are also the remains of a number of species outside the three main domesticates, that are clearly indicative of ritual activity and possibly of the worship of speciic deities or adherence to particular cults within the pagan religious beliefs of Scandinavia. Apart from the burial of parts of a horse, already mentioned, at least three dogs were recovered from Cloghermore. The largest assemblage of bones, representing a mature individual about the size of a modern sheepdog came from the base of the entrance shaft, the same location as a crushed cattle skull. The deposition of a dog or parts of a dog at this location is surely of ritual signiicance and may be interpreted as a inal act before sealing the shaft. Dog bone was also recovered from other areas. In Scandinavian mythology horses and dogs are seen as having strong links to death and the journey to the otherworld and this is an important aspect of their link to Freyja, in her capacity of welcoming of the slain, as outlined in the Edda poem Grímnismál, where she is said to have half of those who died in battle while the other half belonged to Odin (Ellis Davidson 1964, 39 & 176). It is also worthy of note that dogs, as well as horses, were among the animals sacriiced at the Oseberg funeral in southern Norway. Freyr was the twin brother of Freyja and while she was seen as helping in affairs of the heart and having some powers over the dead, Freyr was represented as a sovereign deity of increase and prosperity. Freyr was closely associated with the horse cult and sacred horses were kept in his sanctuary at Thrandheim, Norway. Boar was represented at the site by tusks and vertebrae from at least one individual, recovered from ‘The Graveyard’. Unfortunately this bone was mixed in with other faunal material from the area but the tusks are suficiently large to have come from a wild boar. Both Freyr and Freyja are associated with the boar. Freyr is said by Snorri to own the boar Gullinbursti, made by the dwarfs, whose coat shone in the dark and could outrun any steed. Freyja also had a boar called Hildisvín. Ellis Davidson notes that the association of the boar with deities of fertility is likely to be very old (op. cit.).Another name for Freyja as recounted by Snorri was sýr or ‘sow’, while the wall hangings at the Oseberg ship burial

depict igures with swine heads, which have been taken to be Freyja (Ingstad et al 1995). Ellis Davidson (1964, 149) also notes that the heroes in Valhalla are described as feasting on pork and mead, which, in conjunction with the practice of funeral feasting, may explain the quantities of pig bones recovered from the site at Cloghermore. Freyja is also closely associated with cats, the bones of which were recovered from a number of locations within the cave. The most obvious link is her chariot, which is said to have been drawn by cats (Ellis Davidson 1998, 108). However, the links between Freyja and cats have, according to Ellis Davidson, not been explained satisfactorily, but she does note that cats were amongst the animal spirits that helped in divination by a witch or volva, associated with the cult of Freyja. This ritual, according to extant accounts, involved the wearing of a costume of animal skins including boots of calf skin and gloves of cat skin (Ellis Davidson 1964, 117-20). The cremated bones of cats were recovered at four graves excavated by Sander (1997, 25) at Helgö cemetery 116 and all four were of Viking Age date, while in writing on prehistoric cremations in Västmanland, Sweden, Iregren (1983, 23-39) states that cat bones are something of a ‘diagnostic fossil’ for the Viking Age. In the context of burial ritual and possible connections to the cults of certain deities, it is also worthy of note that the lightly charred fragments of hazelnut shells were recovered from the cave. Ellis Davidson (1995, 111) suggests that nuts are symbols of fertility and thus linked to Freyja and, presumably Freyr, while Graslund (2000, 59) has suggested that the occurrence of hazelnuts in graves is symbolic of rebirth. Clearly, there is a ritual signiicance to the presence of certain animals in the cave at Cloghermore and the evidence suggests that there may well be a link between these ritual deposits and the cults of the sibling deities Freyr and Freyja. The evidence displays very clear and precise links to cultic practice in southern Scandinavia, particularly Sweden, which indicates that the group using Cloghermore were very familiar with the rituals of that area. This familiarity suggests that the group may well have been of southern Scandinavian origin rather than of mixed Hiberno-Scandinavian heritage.

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Plunder or Funerary Offerings? Burial, Ritual and Artefact Deposition in Cloghermore Cave - Michael Connolly

Plate 6: Metal finds from the cave – 1. Horse-bit rings, 2. Small shears blade, 3. Small iron knife, 4. Iron anvil, 5. Copper alloy button, 6. Part of a padlock

The Artefacts Artefacts were recovered from all the excavated areas inside the cave and on the surface. In total the cave produced over 350 individual items comprising objects of stone, bone, antler, ivory, amber, glass, copper alloy and iron. Iron objects dominate the assemblage from the cave. Unfortunately the iron is generally in very poor condition due to the annual looding of the cave and the presence of a bat colony during the winter. The resulting mixture of bat faeces and water produced very acidic conditions, which undoubtedly hastened the corrosion of the iron. However, a number of the iron objects can be identiied though complete objects of iron are rare from the cave. Objects of copper alloy also seem to have fared badly in this environment as only a few small 38

fragments, apart from the two ringed pins were recovered. The other artefacts from the cave did not suffer too much damage from the natural process within the system although a number of the amber beads were very brittle upon discovery and subsequently broke. This brittleness appears to have been caused by exposure to ire/heat. Given the disturbed nature of the cave it is dificult to associate most of the material with speciic burials. However, a clear case can be made for viewing the material from around the single articulated burial and the child burial in a pit as discrete assemblages associated with a speciic group of bones. The silver hoard was recovered from ‘The Graveyard’ at the very base of the excavated material in a hollow created by earlier roof collapse and the action of lowstone. As such,

Plunder or Funerary Offerings? Burial, Ritual and Artefact Deposition in Cloghermore Cave - Michael Connolly it is impossible to associate the hoard with any particular burial or group of bones. Similarly, all of the artefacts and the skeletal material are associated with a single soil layer, the imported brown clay, thus making it impossible to create any stratigraphic matrix for the assemblage.

Iron

Of the identiiable material, blades or portions of blades, from knives, shears and a possible sword or spearhead, are the most common items recovered (Plate 6.3). Weapons are represented in the assemblage by an arrowhead, spearhead ferrule with a blade fragment attached, an axe and fragments of a shield boss.

The socketed arrowhead is of a military rather than hunting type, as were most of the arrowheads from Viking Dublin (Wallace 1998, 218) while the blade fragment adhering to the spear ferrule may be from a sword or possibly a broad bladed spear. Only two other axes are known from Scandinavian burials in Ireland, both are from Kilmainham, and were found

in 1845 (Harrison 2001, 70). The fragmentary shield boss would have been of a domed type rather than a conical type. Similar domed bosses are known from Irish contexts, such as Lagore (Hencken 1950, 99 Nos. 98-99, ig.33) and Viking contexts within Ireland, such as the burial from Eyrephort, Co. Galway. The shield boss was directly associated with the articulated male burial inside the entrance, as was a small iron knife, boat shaped whetstone, ringed pin, two small copper alloy pins and a button (Plates 10 & 6.5). A small iron anvil (Plate 6.4) was recovered from excavations on the surface and, surprisingly, is one of the more readily identiiable iron objects from the site, in that it can be closely paralleled with one of the anvils from the Viking Age tool box found at Mästermyr, Gotland, Sweden and dated to the 9th10th centuries (Arwidsson & Berg 1983, 15, Pls. 9 & 21:72.).

Two iron rings and a curved fragment represent the remains of the horse-bit probably associated with horse skull fragments recovered from the cave (Plate 6.1). Other curved hook like objects may also be items of horse harness. Similar rings

Plate 7: (L-R) Bone strap end, antler pin beater and decorated bone handle 39

Plunder or Funerary Offerings? Burial, Ritual and Artefact Deposition in Cloghermore Cave - Michael Connolly

Plate 8: (L-R) Walrus ivory ball and the bone gaming pieces

Plate 10 The two complete ringed pins. The example on left was associated with the articulated male burial Cloghermore produced parts of four deinite shears as well as many fragments that may be from shears blades (Plate 6.2). The smallest of the shears was recovered from the pit containing the child burial where it was associated with, among other things, a double sided antler comb (Plate 9), a gaming piece (Plate 8), a bone pin and a piece of jasper.

Copper Alloy Plate 9: Decorated, double sided antler comb are known from Ireland, Iceland, Sweden and Viking sites in Russia, the particular type of three-link horse-bit being relatively common. An iron handle was recovered in four parts, itted together during conservation and is clearly, with its lattened hand grip, from a bucket or other such vessel. Wallace has stated that most of the stave built buckets and containers from Dublin did not appear to have had iron handles (Wallace 1998, 211).

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Two complete ringed-pins and a number of fragments were recovered (Plate 10). All the identiiable pins are of the loopheaded type, while the complete pin with a plain ring was in use in Ireland during the eighth and ninth centuries (Fanning 1994, 52-3). Similar pins are known from Viking contexts in Ireland (Fanning 1970, 75, ig.2). The pin found with the articulated male burial is unusual because of the ring, which has more in common with the ring of a pseudo-penannular ring-brooch than the ringed pins classiied by Fanning (1994, 5). Examples of the type are known from native Irish contexts such as Lagore (Hencken 1950, 71-77) and similar or related forms have been found

Plunder or Funerary Offerings? Burial, Ritual and Artefact Deposition in Cloghermore Cave - Michael Connolly amongst the Insular material in Viking graves in Norway (Petersen 1928, ig. 216; 1940, igs. 160-3). Fanning (1994, 5) suggests that this type of fastener was in vogue during the second half of the eighth century and the early part of the ninth.

Bone Antler & Ivory

One of the irst artefacts from the cave was a long pointed object of antler which appears to be a so called ‘pin beater’ used in weaving (Plate 7). Two cylindrical/barrel shaped, bone objects, one with a removable pointed peg were recovered from the cave (Plate 8). Similar objects, without

parallel cannot be found, but because of the material used. It is made from ivory and has been identiied as being made from the base of a walrus tusk (A. MacGregor pers. comm). It is decorated with a series of incised concentric lines running round its body. Walrus ivory cannot be obtained south of the Arctic Circle, indeed Sawyer (1982, 71) suggests that, prior to the colonization of Greenland, walrus ivory could only be obtained from northern Norway. Cloghermore produced evidence of at least six separate combs of which the most complete is a decorated, doublesided, antler comb from the pit containing the child burial (Plate 9). Numerous comb fragments were also recovered. All of the other combs and fragments are made from bone and most bear some form of decoration on the side plates. In general terms, all of the combs fall into types that date to the 8th-10th centuries AD though the double sided type was in use earlier and had a long currency (Dunleavy 1988, 341-422).

Beads

Plate 11: The amber beads the peg, had been recovered from other Irish excavations and interpreted as beads or ferrules. Both are decorated with incised concentric lines around the body of the object. The presence of the removable peg in one of the Cloghermore examples suggests that these are gaming pieces for use on a board similar to that from Ballinderry crannog. One of these gaming pieces was recovered from the pit containing the child burial. One of the more striking inds was an unusual decorated bone handle (Plate 7). This handle is clearly not from a knife as we still have a bone peg holding part of the broken bone object attached to the handle in place. Yet clear parallels for the handle are not obvious. It is possible that the handle held something used in weaving such as a small weaving sword. One of the more important inds is a perforated, spherical object (Plate 8) not because of what it is, indeed a convincing

The cave produced a total of 13 beads - six beads of amber, three of glass, three small disc beads or spacers of bone and one small disc bead of stone. The blue glass bead from the cave is decorated with yellow enamel cables and bosses. The other two glass beads from the site are very small, spherical examples of brown glass. This type of bead is commonly found in Scandinavia (Callmer 1977, Type E) and was found on 8-10th century settlement sites in Sweden and northern Germany. A total of six amber beads were recovered from Cloghermore (Plate 11) and all except one were directly associated with the deposition of the cremated animal bone, ash and charcoal in the stone setting within ‘The Graveyard’. The beads are all, of generally, the same diameter though they differ in thickness. On all of the beads there is a difference between the thickness of one side of the bead to the other, while the perforation is placed eccentrically on the beads where there is the greatest difference. This would suggest that the beads are all part of the one string, probably from a necklace, the eccentric perforations and sloping/wedge shaped cross section of some of the beads ensuring that they would lie tightly against one another on a curve. Their association with the cremation deposit would suggest that any presumptive human cremation in this area was probably that of a female. 41

Plunder or Funerary Offerings? Burial, Ritual and Artefact Deposition in Cloghermore Cave - Michael Connolly

The Silver Hoard The silver hoard from Cloghermore cave was found in a small cleft or hollow during the excavation of ‘The Graveyard’ (Sheehan igure 2 this volume). The hoard consists of six items, comprising two ingots and four portions of individual arm-rings, two of which are tightly wrapped together. The ingots are short oblong bars the larger weighing 25.4grams, the smaller 12.2grams. Ingots form a signiicant element of Ireland’s Viking-age hoards, functioning as a simple means of storing bullion. Ingots or ingot fragments occur in at least thirty-ive pre-1,000 AD hoards from Ireland, fourteen of which also contain coins (Sheehan 2005, 135-154) All four arm-rings are decorated using stamps with pellets or other decorative patterns and are classic examples of Hiberno-Scandinavian broad–band armrings. Silver armrings were by far the most common products of Ireland’s Hiberno-Scandinavian silver-working tradition, which was at its height between c. 850 and c. 950. Over one hundred individual examples of broad-band arm-rings are on record from Ireland, occurring, sometimes in hack-silver form, in over twenty hoards, while the distributional evidence suggests that broad-band arm-rings were manufactured most probably by the Hiberno-Scandinavians centred on Dublin. Broadband arm-rings appear to have been primarily manufactured for the storage and circulation of silver as a form of currency in Ireland’s metal-weight economy, though it is very likely that they also served as status objects. Given that it has no coin content, the date of the Cloghermore hoard may only be approximated from the evidence of the deposition dates of other related hoards. The presence of fragments of broad-band arm-rings in the ind is particularly useful in this regard, for rings of this type occur alongside coins in a number of hoards from Ireland, Britain and Scandinavia. Taking the proposed date-ranges for the broadband arm-rings and for the ingots together, a date for the assembly and deposition of the Cloghermore hoard within the period between c. 880 and c. 940 can be suggested with a date later in this range c. 910-940 AD most likely (Sheehan 2005, 147-148). The discovery of the Cloghermore hoard is of particular importance, for a number of reasons. Firstly, it represents the irst ind of a hoard of its type on an archaeological excavation 42

in Ireland since 1948, when the Carraig Aille hoard was found during Ó Ríordáin’s excavations in the Lough Gur region of Co. Limerick (Ó Ríordáin 1949, 62-4). Secondly, and more importantly, as it was professionally excavated its integrity and status as a complete ind is beyond doubt. Thirdly, it forms a welcome addition to the relatively few Viking-age silver hoards on record from the province of Munster (see Sheehan ig. 1 this volume). And, inally, it is one of very few hoards of its type from Ireland that can be safely regarded as deriving from an unequivocally Scandinavian or HibernoScandinavian cultural context.

Conclusion It is clear that the cave at Cloghermore is a burial site and that the excavated features on the surface, the D-shaped enclosure and the post and slot trench structures, relate to this use of the cave. The evidence indicates two differing rites, one involving the deposition of selected bones within the cave following the de-leshing of the bones, the other involving the interment of complete bodies within the cave, which were subsequently disturbed probably as a deliberate act of desecration following the sealing of the cave when the bodies were not fully decomposed, as evidenced by analysis of the human remains. The radiocarbon dates from the site would conirm an earlier and later phase of burial and indicate that the earlier phase of burial - represented by the deposition of de-leshed, disarticulated skeletal remains without artefacts - is centered on the 8th century. The later phase of burial - characterized by the importation of the brown soil, the interment of complete bodies with artefacts and burial rites involving the cremation of animals, interment of parts of a horse etc. - is centred on the late 9th and early 10th centuries. All the available evidence suggests that the second phase of burial is indicative of the use of the cave by a pagan Scandinavian or Hiberno-Scandinavian group, while the area of Scandinavia that provides the closest parallels for the burial rite and, indeed, for a number of the artefacts is southern Scandinavia. This is contrary to the usual Scandinavian inluences proposed for Ireland, where the initial raids are seen as the work of the Norse with the Danes arriving in 851AD. The artefact assemblage and the bone analysis suggest a small number of later burials, while the volume of artefacts from the cave shows that these burials were richly furnished with items

Plunder or Funerary Offerings? Burial, Ritual and Artefact Deposition in Cloghermore Cave - Michael Connolly ranging from weaponry and horse harness to whetstones. The presence of women and children among the later burials, as well as domestic items of everyday use suggests a settled group rather than a raiding party. An annalistic reference to a Scandinavian Dún or settlement on the river Maine (O'Corráin 1996) is the nearest recorded settlement site to Cloghermore. If this settlement was permanent and functioned as a ‘way station’ on the sea route between Cork and Limerick, as suggested by Sheehan et al (2001, 93-119) then it probably also had a military garrison and controlled the hinterland of the settlement, both from the point of view of security and as a source of food and raw materials. Indeed, a military presence and inluence within the hinterland of the settlement is suggested by the fact that the Ciarraige Luachra, Eóganacht Locha Léin and Ui Fidgeinte felt it necessary to launch a combined attack on the site, as noted in the annalistic reference (O'Corráin 1996). Perhaps small family sized groups from this permanent base moved out into the country to settle and farm nearby land to supply Dún Mainne with the food and raw materials such a settlement would have required. While the exact location of Dún Mainne is uncertain and a number of possible locations have been suggested (Connolly & Coyne 2005, 172-174) Cloghermore suggests that a small family sized group of Scandinavian or Hiberno-Scandinavian origin was settled in the hinterland of the cave. This small group adopted the inal burial place of a local, pagan group as their own and following a number of alterations to the cave entrance and the construction of a number of structures on the surface, began burying their dead. The evidence suggests that this second phase of use of the cave and consequently the suggested settlement was short-lived, lasting at most a single generation and probably much less. Nevertheless, enough evidence has survived the desecration of the site shortly after its abandonment and subsequent disturbance up to the present day to show how a rural area in Kerry was drawn into the wider Viking world in the 10th century. In answer to the question posed in the title, the artefacts from the cave may have been plundered at some time in their history but their deposition in the cave was as funerary offerings to accompany the dead and continue to serve them in the afterlife.

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Plunder or Funerary Offerings? Burial, Ritual and Artefact Deposition in Cloghermore Cave - Michael Connolly

BIBLIOGRAPHY Arwidsson, G & Berg, G. 1983. The Mästermyr Find; a Viking Age Tool Chest from Gotland. Stockholm. Callmer, J. 1977. ‘Trade Beads and Bead Trade in Scandinavia c.800-1000 AD.’ Acta Archaeologica Lundensia, Ser. 40/1. Malmö. Condell, L. 1985. ‘Cloghermore Cave.’ Irish Speleology 3(2), 5253. Connolly, M. & Coyne, F. 2005. Underworld: Death and Burial in Cloghermore Cave, Co. Kerry. Dublin. Dunlevy, M. 1988. ‘A classiication of early Irish combs.’ Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 88C, 341-422. Ellis-Davidson, H.R. 1964. Gods & Myths of Northern Europe. London. Ellis-Davidson, H.R. 1998. Roles of the Northern Goddess. London. Fanning, T. 1970. ‘Viking grave goods from near Larne, Co. Antrim.’ Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 100, 71-78. Fanning, T. 1994. Viking Age Ringed Pins from Dublin. Medieval Dublin Excavations 1962-81, Ser. B, Vol. 4, Dublin. Gräslund, A-S. 1980. Birka IV; The Burial Customs- A study of the Graves on Bjorko. Stockholm. Gräslund, A-S. 2000. ‘Religion, Art & Runes’, in W.W. Fitzhugh and E.I. Ward (eds), Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga. Washington, pp. 55-72. Harrison, S. H., 2001. ‘Viking Graves and Grave Goods in Ireland’, in A-C. Larsen (ed.), The Vikings in Ireland. Roskilde, pp. 61-76. Hencken, H.O’N. 1950. ‘Lagore Crannog: an Irish royal residence of the 7th to 10th centuries AD.’ Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 53C, 1-247. Ingstad, A.S. 1995. ‘The Interpretation of the Oseberg Find’, in O. Crumlin-Pedersen & B. Munche (eds), The Ship as a Symbol in Prehistoric and Medieval Scandinavia. Copenhagen, pp. 139-47. Iregren, E. 1983. Förhistorika kremationer I Västmanland, Västmanlands Fornminnesförening och Västmanlands Läns Museum Årsskrift, 23-39. Ó Corráin, D. 1996. ‘Vikings III: Dún Mainne.’ Peritia 10, 273. Ó Ríordáin, S.P. 1949. ‘Lough Gur excavations:Carraig Aille and ‘the Spectacles’.’ Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 52C, 39-111. Petersen, J. 1928. Vikingtidens smykker. Stavanger. Sander, B. 1997. Excavations at Helgö XIII, Cemetery 116, Kungliga Vitterhets Historie ock Antikvitets Akademien Stockholm. Stockholm. Sawyer, P.H. 1982. Kings and Vikings: Scandinavia & Europe AD 700-1100. Routledge, London. Sheehan, J. 2005. ‘The Silver Hoard’, in M. Connolly & F. Coyne, Underworld: Death and Burial in Cloghermore Cave, Co. Kerry. Dublin, pp. 135-154. Sheehan, J., Stummann Hansen, S., and Ó Corráin, D. 2001. ‘A Viking Age maritime haven: a reassessment of the island settlement at Beginish, Co. Kerry.’ Journal of Irish Archaeology 10, 93-119. Wallace, P.F. 1998. ‘The use of Iron in Viking Dublin’, in M. Ryan (ed.) Irish Antiquities: essays in memory of Joseph Raftery. Dublin, pp. 201-222.

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The Aghadoe and River Laune Crosiers - Griffin Murray

The Aghadoe and River Laune Crosiers GRIFFIN MURRAY Two of the most spectacular treasures of early medieval Kerry are from the Killarney area. They are both crosiers, which were discovered independently, one at the church site at Aghadoe and the other in the river Laune. The river Laune crosier is a complete traditional early medieval Irish crosier, while that from Aghadoe survives as a crosier-head, which, although certainly Irish, is of Continental form. Surprisingly, despite being the two most important early medieval religious artefacts from the county and of being of national, if not international, importance, to date there has been very little research carried out on them and very little published. This paper principally examines the history and signiicance of these artefacts. The river Laune crosier is now in the National Museum of Ireland in Kildare Street, Dublin, while the Aghadoe crosier-head is currently held in the August Kestner Museum in Hanover, Germany.

The river Laune crosier The river Laune crosier (National Museum of Ireland L1207) is one of the most exquisite and complete of the surviving early medieval Irish crosiers (Figure 1). This type of crosier developed in Ireland and they were only made in this country, in neighbouring Scotland, and possibly also in Wales. Other famous examples include those from: Clonmacnoise, Co. Offaly (NMI R2988); Lismore, Co. Waterford (NMI L1948:1); and an Irish crosier of uncertain provenance in the British Museum (1859-2-21/1). Irish crosiers date from between the eighth or ninth century and the twelfth century and are relatively short in contrast to modern examples, being around one metre high. They always consist of metal ittings mounted on a wooden core, with the principal elements being the head, shaft and foot. While the head and foot are usually made of cast metal pieces, the shaft is always covered in sheet metal, and is divided by a series of three or four cast barrelshaped knops. What is particularly distinctive about the Irish crosier is the shape of the head. Instead of forming a spiral or simple walking-stick shape, as one inds in the case of

Continental crosiers, the head of the Irish crosier is curved, with the addition of a vertical drop at its extremity. After the simple hand bell, damaged examples of which have been recovered in the county from Church Island in Valentia Harbour (Cork Public Museum 1777.1859) and Illauntannig in Tralee bay (NMI 1886:303), the Irish crosier is the most common surviving religious artefact from early medieval Ireland. There are 50 examples known from Ireland, and another 10 from outside the country, which includes the Scottish examples and some Irish pieces in Scandinavia. Most are fragmentary, with only the river Laune example and ive other Irish examples being complete or near complete. These crosiers differ from those made in other parts of Europe in that they were not regarded as the personal property of a particular cleric, but were held by particular families for the Church and passed down through the generations. They appear not only to have functioned as symbols of power for the senior clerics who would have used them, but acted as symbols of the power of the ecclesiastical foundations themselves. Indeed, many of them were regarded as relics of the founding saints of these religious sites, although when examined internally it appears that none of them actually were. Apart from the foot of a crosier from Muckross Friary (NMI 1893:18), the river Laune crosier is the only Irish-type crosier surviving from county Kerry, yet it is the most lavish of all of the Irish crosiers. Unlike most Irish crosiers, it is largely made of silver, while its gold iligree is of much iner workmanship than that seen on any of the contemporary pieces of Church metalwork from Ireland. On the basis of its ornament, the crosier would appear to date from the third quarter of the eleventh century. While it has been somewhat damaged, all of its main components remain in place and there is little evidence of ancient repair on the crosier, so one may imagine that this crosier did not enjoy a prolonged period of use before it was deposited in the bed of the Laune. While this action resulted in its preservation, it also has had a negative effect on 45

The Aghadoe and River Laune Crosiers - Griffin Murray

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Figure 1: Watercolour of the river Laune crosier by Sister Margaret Cousins (© National Museum of Ireland).

The Aghadoe and River Laune Crosiers - Griffin Murray

Figure 2: Detail of watercolour by Sister Margaret Cousins (© National Museum of Ireland). it; it is now very fragile in places, with a substantial amount of the ornament on its head damaged through corrosion. The following extract is from a paper on the crosier published in 1899 in the Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society by Rev Denis O’Donoghue, and it is the best account of the circumstances of its discovery: In the summer of 1867, Denis O’Sullivan, a isherman in the employment of Sir Maurice James O’Connell, Lakeview, was, on a ine bright day, plying a boat on the river Laune, from the lake to Beaufort Bridge, on the lookout for salmon. The summer had been very dry and warm, and the waters in the lake and river were remarkably low and clear, so that the isherman as he went along

was able to scan the bed of the river in its deepest pools. Passing over one of these under the ancient castle of Dunloe, which over hangs the river, he espied what he thought was a salmon lying at the bottom. He struck at it with his gaff, but it gave no sign of life and when he ished it up, he believed he had found what he called “a curious handstick.” On shewing it soon after to a respectable Catholic lady in the neighbourhood he was informed that his “ind” was an ancient bishop’s crozier, of which he ought to take great care, as it was very valuable. This lady, anxious that so interesting a relic of ancient Irish art should become the property of her bishop, Dr. Moriarty, had conveyed to his lordship early intelligence of the discovery, with a request that he should secure possession of it on any terms. The bishop lost no time in sending for the crozier, and 47

The Aghadoe and River Laune Crosiers - Griffin Murray when it was produced by the brother of the inder, who was a professional isherman on the lakes, his lordship, recognising at once its great value, gave the bearer £18, which he accepted in payment for it with effusive thankfulness, declaring that “this was far and away the best salmon he ever landed”. However, there are also some short handwritten notes from the late nineteenth century in the Kerry diocesan archive, which relate to the history of the crosier from its discovery to its acquisition by the bishop. The undated notes state that the inder of the crosier, Denis O’Sullivan, was from Tomies, that his wife was still alive at the time, but that he himself had died three months before. The author records that the ind was made between Dunloe (Dunloe Lower) and Grenagh, but nearer to Dunloe, which are the two townlands that border the river Laune for a few hundred metres around Dunloe castle. The notes also record that the inder originally brought his discovery to Sir Maurice O’Connell to ind out what it was worth and that O’Sullivan subsequently brought the crosier to Cork on the train, wrapped up in paper, where he was stopped on disembarking by the RIC who thought he was carrying arms. He proceeded then to take it to James Hackett the jeweller, whose premises were located at 42 Patrick Street, where he was only offered £5 for it. The notes also state that he took it himself to Bishop Moriarty who offered him £15 for it. Not long after its acquisition by Bishop Moriarty it was exhibited in London at the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum) as part of a major loans exhibition in 1868. That same year it was also shown at the National Exhibition of Works of Art at Leeds, before returning to London, where it remained on exhibition for a further year. It was not until 1872, that the crosier was displayed in Ireland, at a large art and industrial exhibition in Dublin. On the death of Bishop Moriarty the crosier passed to Dr John Coffey, who was one of the executors of his will and who himself became bishop of Kerry in 1889. That same year a nun in the Presentation Convent, Tralee, Sr Margaret Cousins, who was instrumental in the establishment of an art school in the convent, created a full sized watercoloured drawing of the crosier, as well as drawn details of it ornament. She won a bronze medal from the Department of Science and Art in South Kensington, London, for her work 48

Figure 3: River Laune crosier, lower portion of head (© National Museum of Ireland). and the judges were so impressed with the illustration that they purchased it for the South Kensington Museum, where it was placed on exhibition. Sometime later the Science and Art Museum in Dublin (now the National Museum of Ireland) requested a similar drawing, which shows two views of the crosier (Figures 1 & 2), as well as another drawing showing details of the individual panels of ornament. These drawing are the most detailed study of the crosier made to date, they were exhibited in the museum for many years, and they show that the crosier is, with some exceptions, largely in a similar condition today as it was then. Bishop Coffey also gave permission to Rev O’Donoghue to show the crosier at a meeting of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland in 1891, which took place during their summer excursion to Killarney that year. Some of O’Donoghue’s comments on the crosier were published in their proceedings for that year, but his paper was not fully published until 1899, when it appeared in the Journal of the

The Aghadoe and River Laune Crosiers - Griffin Murray Cork Historical and Archaeological Society. The crosier then passed to another bishop of Kerry, before it reached Bishop Charles O’Sullivan. For the occasion of his consecration on the 27th of January 1918 the people of Tralee presented Bishop O’Sullivan with a modern silver crosier based on the river Laune crosier, made by Messrs Smyth’s in Dublin, which is now on loan to Muckross House (52/66). It took the silversmiths eight months of constant work to complete the crosier, which was copied directly from the original in their workshop. It seems that the original crosier suffered some damage, as well as repair, during its time in Smyth’s. Its foot shows evidence of having been removed, two iligree panels on its knop were replaced and some re-gilding may have also been done. Following its time in the workshop, the original crosier was exhibited to the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland for a second time and then, on the 15th September 1921, the bishop and the Very Rev John Breen lent the river Laune crosier along with Smyth’s copy to the National Museum of Ireland. The copy was returned to the diocese on the 6th of July 1927, while the original remained in the National Museum of Ireland, where it has been on permanent exhibition ever since. Another copy of the crosier was commissioned by the people of Killarney for the consecration of Bishop Moynihan on the 21st of September 1941. The National Museum of Ireland were keen to have the river Laune crosier conserved in the British Museum laboratory and sought the bishop’s consent for this in May 1932 and again in May 1952. Despite being granted permission on each occasion, the work did not take place until 1975-7. Nevertheless, the crosier, because of its condition, could only be partially conserved by the team in the British Museum, the badly affected areas remain largely untreated, and in places it remains very fragile.

Description The river Laune crosier measures 111.5 cm long, its head measures 17cm wide, and it has a maximum thickness of 4.5cm. It consists of a head, shaft and foot, with three knops along its shaft, the fourth bottom knop and foot forming a single piece (Figure 1). Unlike most Irish crosiers its metal ittings are made of silver rather than copper-alloy. However, some of this silver, notably that used for the head, has a high copper content, evidenced by its corrosion. Like all of the

Figure 4: River Laune crosier, drop portion of head (© National Museum of Ireland). Irish-type crosiers, this example has an internal wooden core, which extends up to the base of the head, which is otherwise hollow.

Head The head was largely cast in one piece, with the exception of a separately made openwork crest and plate at the front of the drop (Figure 2). It is gilded and is decorated on each side with a series of four iligree panels (Figure 3). These are bordered by bands of niello (a black coloured substance) inlaid with gold zigzagging wire and are connected to each other by silver strips. The iligree panels consist of interlaced designs, which are both zoomorphic and abstract in character. All of the iligree panels on the crosier, including those on the head have a gold sheet backing. Of those on the head, the frames are constructed out of a double band of lattened-out 49

The Aghadoe and River Laune Crosiers - Griffin Murray

Figure 5: River Laune crosier, top knop (© National Museum of Ireland).

Figure 6: River Laune crosier, second knop (© National Museum of Ireland).

beaded gold wire set on edge. The designs themselves are formed out of four beaded wires, one pair stacked on top of the other, with a thinner plain wire on top. Single gold granules are used in some instances to mark signiicant parts of the designs.

its base it expands into a complex openwork, intertwined terminal, which may represent a large animal-head.

The rest of the available space on the head of the crosier is decorated with fantastic beasts cast in low relief, nine on each side (Figures 2 & 3). All of these animals are seen in proile and each one of them forms a loop with its body that terminates in a spiral tail or back hip with off-shoots. They have open mouths, single front paws and off-shoots from their heads and jaws that intertwine with their own bodies. The openwork crest was cast separately and is attached to the crook by a number of rivets (Figures 2 & 3). It consists of a main curved band supported by a series of short pillars and crowned by a series of short pointed projections. At 50

There is an openwork un-gilded frame around the edges of the vertical drop (Figure 4), which consists of a row of D-shaped openings. This is decorated with niello inlaid with two zigzagging wires of gold on its front. The front of the drop is crowned by a heavily gilded human head cast in high relief with almond-shaped eyes, spiral ears, long thin nose, and small mouth. His hair radiates from the centre of his head in widening segments. He has a long, square-shaped chin that may represent a beard, and a long handlebar moustache that engages with the frame around the drop. The section of the moustache on the right hand side is now broken. At the lower end of the frame there is a large gilt animal-head, also in high relief, which projects inwards over the iligree panel. The animal-head originally featured two large projecting ears, one of which is broken off. The drop plate is decorated with

The Aghadoe and River Laune Crosiers - Griffin Murray a iligree panel of abstract interlace with a central garnet set in a beaded and plaited gold wire collar. There is a further iligree panel beneath the drop, which features a zoomorphic design.

The top knop The top barrel-shaped knop, which is heavily gilded, is largely decorated with cast ornament, as well as a number of iligree panels set around its centre (Figure 5). Four of the iligree panels are circular and these are interrupted by four further sub-rectangular panels. The circular panels are all apparently zoomorphic and the designs seem to consist of single intertwined snakes, while the sub-rectangular panels consist of vegetal or abstract interlaced designs. One circular panel and one sub-rectangular panel have been replaced in modern times with impressed gold foil panels (see above). A band of inlaid niello with a zigzagging gold wire borders all of the iligree panels. Above and below the iligree panels are four cast panels of ornament, eight in total, which are all heavily gilded, perhaps in modern times. These alternate between zoomorphic and abstract interlaced designs. The uppermost and lowermost areas of the knop are decorated with cast knotted vegetal ornament in relief.

The second and third knops These un-gilded barrel-shaped knops are each largely decorated with eight cast zoomorphic panels, covered in gold foil (Figures 6 & 7). These panels are arranged in two orders of four, which are separated by a central ridge. A band of niello borders each individual panel and all of the panels depict interlaced beasts in proile. There is a band of lozenge and stroke ornament formed of inlaid niello running around the top and bottom of the knops in each case. There were originally four animal-heads, depicted in plan, projecting from the upper and lower ends these knops. While they still all survive on the third knop (Figure 7), only one animalhead now remains on the upper end of the second knop and two larger examples at its lower end (Figure 6) (one animalhead has broken off since this photograph was taken). These animal heads were all perforated for nails that originally held the knops securely in position. These nails are now lost on the second knop, which has rotated slightly on the shaft.

Figure 7: River Laune crosier, third knop (© National Museum of Ireland).

The lower knop and foot The lower knop and foot are gilded and were cast as one piece (Figure 8). The knop section is decorated with four lozengeshaped designs executed in inlaid niello with zigzagging gold wire. These are interconnected with four cast spirals from which springs the knotted foliage ornament that covers the lower part of the knop and the main body of the foot. The spirals all contain empty circular settings in their centres. The upper section of the lower knop is decorated with a series of nine openwork triangles, the borders of which are decorated with a cast zigzagging line. Above these there were originally three projecting decorative elements, two of which survive. These gilt ornaments are vegetal in design and are reminiscent of leur-de-lis. Both surviving examples have been broken off the main body of the knop and both have original ixing holes 51

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52

Figure 8: River Laune crosier, bottom knop and foot (© National Museum of Ireland).

The Aghadoe and River Laune Crosiers - Griffin Murray in their central leaves. They have both been reattached to the crosier in an incorrect position; one is now attached to the crosier with beeswax, while the other is ixed to it with a nail. As mentioned above, the bottom part of the lower knop and the main body of the foot are covered in vegetal ornament. This cast ornament is both in relief and in openwork and consists of intertwined knotted, leafy foliage. On the main body of the foot the leaves and tendrils are arranged so that they form a series of open triangular spaces. Inside some of these are single small cast settings, eight in total, which were probably made to receive glass studs, none of which now survive. The lower end of the foot separates into four un-gilded pillars, square in their cross sections, which are connected by a gilded band of foliage ornament close to their terminal ends. Above this is a series of four un-gilded rectangular plaques, hinged together, which are framed by bands of niello with a zigzagging gold wire.

Shaft and binding strips There are three main sections of the shaft between the knops, upper, middle, and lower (Figure 1). The shaft is covered with three sheets of silver bent to form three separate tubes. Analysis in the British Museum revealed that the silver used in the casing was of a high purity. The casing was not conserved because it was too heavily corroded and brittle and so it has retained a dull blackened appearance. It is cracked in many places, especially in the upper section and a number of pieces are missing. The internal wooden core has shrunk since the crosier’s discovery, creating a space between it and the shaft casing, which has made the brittle casing vulnerable to damage. The shaft casing is fastened by the knops and by three long gilded binding strips. The binding strips are all different and feature numerous projections of various sizes and shapes, giving them a barbed appearance. The upper binding strip is not complete and only a small length of its upper portion survives (less now then is shown in igure 1). The middle binding strip terminates at its lower end in an animal-head, while the lower binding strip, which survives in two main sections, features an openwork interlaced terminal.

Provenance The river Laune crosier may have originally belonged to either Inisfallen or Aghadoe. These two sites were the most important ecclesiastical foundations in the Killarney region in the early medieval period, a region that was ruled by the Eoganacht Loch Léin, with various families including: the O’Carrolls, O’Cahills, O’Moriartys, and O’Donoughues holding the kingship at various times. Unfortunately, the history of these two church sites is not well documented before the twelfth century, making it very dificult, if not impossible, to provide an historical context for the crosier. We know that Inisfallen was signiicant enough to be raided by the Vikings in the early ninth century, while the main church surviving at Inisfallen predates the crosier, having been built in the late tenth or early eleventh century. However, historically, Aghadoe is also known to have had a stone church in the eleventh century, which was presumably replaced by the twelfth-century church surviving at the site. Unfortunately, the circumstances behind the creation of the river Laune crosier remain unknown and there is no evidence to suggest which of the two churches it belonged to. Equally puzzling are the circumstances behind its deposition in the river. Given its condition, it must have been hidden in the river, rather than discarded. Anyone, wishing to destroy it, would have stripped it of its precious metals beforehand. However, if it was hidden in the river, the person or people who did so must have either been killed and so never returned to retrieve it, or were unable to locate it again afterwards. Its discovery close to Dunloe castle may or may not be relevant. Nevertheless, even though its historical context remains unknown, the river Laune crosier, as the most luxurious early medieval Irish crosier surviving, demonstrates the wealth, resources and craftsmanship that were available to the Eoganacht Loch Léin in the eleventh century and the obvious importance of the area at that time.

The Aghadoe crosier-head The crosier-head from Aghadoe (Staten Historiska Museum 16845) is completely different to the river Laune crosier. It is made of walrus ivory, it is later in date, dating from the early twelfth century, and it is more like English and Continental crosiers of the time (Figure 9). Although a beautiful piece in its own right, it is far less complex in design than the river 53

The Aghadoe and River Laune Crosiers - Griffin Murray

Figure 9: Aghadoe crosier-head, one side (© August Kestner Museum).

Laune crosier and was probably originally ixed to a wooden shaft. This crosier-head was irst mentioned in print in 1868, when it was said to have been ‘found in the ruins of Aghadoe 54

Cathedral, in Ireland.’ While the circumstances of its discovery are unknown, the crosier entered the important private collection of Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick (1783-1848) of Goodrich Court, Herefordshire, in England, probably sometime between 1836 and 1848. The Meyrick collection

The Aghadoe and River Laune Crosiers - Griffin Murray

Figure 10: Aghadoe crosier-head, other side (© August Kestner Museum). was exhibited in the South Kensington Museum from 1869, before being dispersed and sold off privately in 1871. There is no mention of the crosier-head again until 1922, when E.C.R. Armstrong published a short note on it in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, stating that it

had been recently discovered in Germany and purchased by the Staten Historiska Museum in Stockholm, Sweden. The Swedish museum bought the crosier-head, thinking it was of Scandinavian origin, from A.L. Drey, an art dealer in Munich, who had acquired it from ‘a German royal person’, who 55

The Aghadoe and River Laune Crosiers - Griffin Murray was said to have inherited it. In 1972 the crosier-head was swapped on a loan basis with the August Kestner Museum in Hanover, Germany, where it remains to this day. A cast of the crosier-head was presented to the National Museum of Ireland in 1898, but this appears to have been lost or damaged by 1932 when a new cast was purchased by the National Museum from the Statens Historiska Museum. This cast has been on loan to Kerry County Museum since 1992 where it forms part of the permanent exhibition.

Twelfth-century Church reform Before we go on to look at the crosier-head in detail, it is worth discussing its historical background. In the early twelfth century the Irish church was going through a period of major reform and great synods were held at Cashel in 1101 and Rath Breasil in 1111. It was at the latter synod that a new diocesan system was created in Ireland, based on the English one, which saw the creation of two archdioceses at Armagh in the north and Cashel in the south, which ruled over the newly created dioceses of Ireland. This new system was a major break from the long established monastic system that held sway in Ireland and seriously unsettled the balance of ecclesiastical power in the country. For the irst time the bishops in Ireland were in charge of dioceses that had ixed geographical boundaries. The reforms also brought with them a great change in the material culture of the church, in terms of vestments, bishops’ mitres, rings, and, of course, crosiers – all of which were either imported or inspired by English and Continental forms. There are two excellent actual examples of this change in the county, one is a grave excavated by Fionnbarr Moore at Ardfert cathedral, in which a bishop’s ring and evidence for a mitre were found (NMI E493:300 & 316). The other great example is the Aghadoe crosier-head, which represents a break with the older tradition that the river Laune crosier represents. Indeed, although retained and repaired, Irish-type crosiers, like that from the Laune, were no longer produced in Ireland after the twelfth century.

Description This spiral crosier-head was carved from a single piece of walrus ivory and measures 14.9cm long, is 8.4cm wide, and is a maximum of 2.45cm in thickness (Figures 9 & 10). It 56

features a socket in its base that allowed it to be attached to its original staff. The crosier-head is dominated by a large beast biting the legs of a man, which together, through their contorted bodies, form a spiral. There are some minor differences in the details of these on either side of the crosier. Altogether, the crosier-head is in reasonably good condition, with the exception that its base has been slightly shortened at some time in the past and its crest is somewhat damaged. The crest, which is the most vulnerable part of the crosier, is broken in seven places along its length. It is approximately 1.2cm wide and 0.6cm thick and is carved in an openwork step-pattern with 20 alternating T-shaped openings. The openings are bordered on either side of the crosier-head by roughly incised lines, which intersect each other along the length of the crest. These lines do not occur at the very bottom of the crest, around the two lowermost openings, where they may have been worn or laked away. The crest also features the remnants of a simply carved animal-head at its base, which has D-shaped eyes and a ribbed snout. The lower portion of the stem of the crosier-head is decorated with zoomorphic interlace in the Hiberno-Urnes style, an Irish version of a late Viking/Scandinavian art style. It is carved in low relief and largely consists of a series of loops intersected by crossing strands (Figure 11). The main elements of the design are formed out of two pairs of interlaced fantastic animals, whose ribbed bodies are depicted in proile. They have unadorned limbs and tails, the latter forming some of the loops of the design, while their paws each consist of three claws. These animals are further intertwined by at least four snake-like creatures with plain bodies and by a further three looping plain strands. The heads of the snake-like creatures are depicted in plan and have long snouts and ears. As the base of the crosier-head is truncated, the heads of the lower pair of animals have been lost. The tails of these animals end in vegetal fronds, unlike all of the other creatures whose tails end in simple lobes. The heads of the upper pair of animals are in high relief and may be seen on either side of the object in the act of biting the forehead of the large beast that forms part of the spiral of the crosier-head (Figures 9 & 10). The jaws of these animals are wide open, displaying a series of teeth. They have backward pointing almond-shaped eyes, a curl on their snouts, and ribbing on their heads. Two further plain bands emanate from this ornament to form into the running vegetal scroll that decorates the two sides of the upper portion of the crosier-head.

The Aghadoe and River Laune Crosiers - Griffin Murray This vegetal scroll branches off into a series of mini-spirals, each of which has two offshoots, all featuring lobed terminals. One of the offshoots in each case crosses the main strand of the ornament. There are eight vegetal spirals on one side of the crosier-head (Figure 9), while there are nine on the other (Figure 10). This ornament covers the main surface of the upper portion of the crosier-head on each side as far as the front hip of the main beast. The beast’s back leg, or legs, can be seen emanating from the main stem of the crosier-head, about midway along the portion covered by the vegetal ornament. They may be seen on either side of the crosier crossing the man’s waist at an angle. They both have a spiral at the hip and a simple incised line around their edges. The paw in each case features four claws. The front legs of the beast are much more substantial. They are bent at the knee joint and the paws grip the beast’s own lower jaw. On one side the hip is marked by a large spiral, while the lower leg is ribbed, and the paw features three claws (Figure 9). On the other side of the crosier-head the hip and upper leg are decorated with a leaf-like device containing a herringbone pattern and the paw features four claws (Figure 10). The beast’s head is dominated by large backward pointing almond-shaped eyes, which are both illed with a bulging eyeball and ribbing. There are also heavy ribbed eyebrows, one of which terminates in a lobe (Figure 9). The beast has small projecting ears on the top of its head and the snout features a curl and ribbing. The jaws are held wide open showing a full set of teeth and two pairs of large fangs that bite the man’s lower legs. The man’s feet disappear into the beast’s mouth and he bends over backwards, with his head touching the beast’s fore-leg. He is dressed in a tunic and short kilt, which ends above his knees. The tunic is marked with horizontal ribbing on the body and sleeves, while the kilt is decorated with vertical ribbing and features a plain band at the hem. The man’s arms are bent at the elbow and his fore-arms rest against the main stem of the crosier-head, which is also, in fact, the body of the beast. His hands are bare and all his ingers are depicted. He has a pointed chin, which also touches against the main stem, and he wears a full beard. His hair sweeps back from his forehead to behind his ears, his eyes are lozenge-shaped and he has a large stub nose and an expressionless mouth.

Figure 11: Aghadoe crosier-head, ornament on lower stem (© August Kestner Museum). 57

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Discussion Although decorated in an Irish early twelfth-century style, there is little doubt that the Aghadoe crosier-head is based on European examples. Indeed, it is comparable in many respects with a late eleventh-century walrus ivory crosier-head from England, now in the Hunt Museum, Limerick (BM002) (Figure 12). For instance, both crosier-heads have animal and vegetal decoration covering their lower stems, which turns into purely vegetal ornament as it extends upwards. Both crosier-heads also contain a central iconographic scene. Similarly the animal-head at the end of the spiral engages with the ornament of the lower stem on the English crosier, while conversely, in the case of the Aghadoe crosier, the ornament on the lower stem engages with the animal that forms its spiral. In 1970 Françoise Henry of University College Dublin interpreted the central iconographical scene on the Aghadoe crosier as Jonah and the whale, but in 2006 Raghnall Ó Floinn of the National Museum of Ireland more convincingly argued that it represents Everyman being pursued by Satan in the form of a beast. The iconography is similar to that on an Irish metal terminal dating from the eighth or ninth century found at Helgö in Sweden, although there are also iconographical similarities with other twelfth-century English crosiers. However, stylistically the crosier-head is most closely related to two major pieces of Irish early twelfth-century Church metalwork: the Cross of Cong and St Manchan’s shrine. The Cross of Cong (NMI R2833) was commissioned by Tulough O’Connor, the king of Connacht and high king of Ireland, in 1123 to enshrine a relic of the True Cross. It was made in the monastery of Roscommon by the master craftsman Máel Ísu mac Bratáin Uí Echach, who was also responsible for St Manchan’s shrine from Lemanaghan, Co. Offaly (Boher, Co. Offaly), which may have also been patronised by O’Connor. Indeed, although based in a monastery and mainly producing Church metalwork, this workshop appears to have been strongly tied to the king, so much so that it may have been considered, perhaps unoficially, as a royal workshop. The Hiberno-Urnes ornament on the Aghadoe crosier-head is so similar to that found on these two pieces of Connacht craftsmanship there can be little doubt that it was produced by the same master craftsman in the 1120s. There would 58

Figure 12: English ivory crosier-head from the Hunt collection (© The Hunt Museum).

have been no dificulty for a craftsman working principally on Church metalwork to work with ivory, as Irish ine metalworkers were used to preparing models and moulds using other material, such as bone, as shown by the many, socalled, motif-pieces surviving from the period. Objects made from walrus ivory have been imported into Ireland since early Viking times (see Connolly plate 8 this volume). The walrus only lives in the Arctic Circle so it was obviously an exotic and expensive commodity in early medieval times. There is evidence for ivory working in Dublin during the eleventh century in the form of walrus skulls, cut walrus tusks, and uninished objects, which suggests that Dublin was the main centre for both the importation and working of this material in Ireland. Turlough O’Connor had control of Dublin in the 1120s, which explains how the Roscommon workshop would have got access to the material. Both Dublin and Connacht were unhappy at this time with the reforms that had given Armagh complete ecclesiastical

The Aghadoe and River Laune Crosiers - Griffin Murray control over them. Dublin in particular looked to Canterbury for the consecration of its bishops at this time and they were supported in this by Turlough O’Connor. There can be little doubt that the bishop of Dublin, following his English counterparts, was using a spiral-headed crosier at this time, as was the bishop of Tuam, who is depicted holding one on the market cross at Tuam, which was erected by O’Connor in 1127. How and why then did this crosier-head end up in Aghadoe? The Rath Breasil synod in 1111 had made Rathass, the capital of what is now the diocese of Kerry, which was changed to Ardfert at the synod of Kells/Mellifont in 1152. This suggests a certain amount of political wrangling between the principal churches in Kerry and it seems likely that the Eoganacht Loch Léin would have wanted a diocesan capital of their own. Aghadoe probably felt it had a claim to diocesan status and its own bishop, and, although never oficially recognised, may have acted as such for a time in the twelfth century. This would explain why a bishop’s crosier-head was found there in the nineteenth century. Like the thirteenth-century bishop’s crosier-head found in a grave on the Rock of Cashel (NMI P1020), the Aghadoe crosier was probably buried with the cleric that they regard as their bishop. The round tower and the Romanesque church at the site are also twelfth-century in date and are probably also manifestations of Aghadoe’s ambitions. The king of the Eoganacht Loch Léin in the 1120s was a man called Muirchertach O’Moriarty. Banished from his kingdom in 1124 by Cormac McCarthy, the king of southern Munster, he led to Connacht, were he was received by Turlough O’Connor. Entering O’Connor’s service, he became one of his naval commanders, and led a leet of his ships on a raid of the Corcu Duibne in 1125. O’Moriarty also put a leet of O’Connor’s ships on Loch Lein in 1126, temporarily re-establishing his own kingship, only to be banished to Connacht again by Cormac McCarthy in 1127. Connacht and Munster then engaged in a major naval battle at Scattery Island, in which Muirchertach seems to have been victorious. He subsequently led a leet on a raid of north Kerry, but was out-manoeuvred by the O’Connor Cirraighe and led to Loch Lein, where he stayed until being banished yet again into Connacht. He is not heard of historically again after this.

Muirchertach O’Moriarty was obviously the conduit by which the crosier came to Aghadoe. It may have been made at his request, or, perhaps, was a gift from Turlough O’Connor to him for Aghadoe. Looking at his career, it seems likely that this may have happened in 1126 when O’Moriarty regained his kingship for a time. Following this, the crosier would have been carried by the senior cleric of Aghadoe, who would have been considered by the Eoganacht Loch Léin to be their bishop. Unfortunately, the historical sources are silent on this man’s identity, but he may have lived for some time, as the ornament on the doorway of the Romanesque church at Aghadoe, which was built in 1158, seems to have been inspired by the ornament on the crest of the crosier. When this man died he was buried in his cathedral with his crosier in the true fashion of a twelfth-century Irish bishop. In conclusion, the river Laune and Aghadoe crosiers are amongst the most important artefacts surviving from early medieval Ireland and they relect the political and religious importance of the Killarney region at that time.

Acknowledgements I would like to thank Mrs Margaret de Brún of Kerry Diocesan Archives, Patricia O’Hare of Muckross House Research Library, and Sister Grace Foley of the Presentation convent, Tralee, for their help with the records and collections held by their respective institutions. Thanks also to Dr Elizabeth Twohig for reading an earlier draft of this paper, to Raghnall Ó Floinn for sending me a copy of his forthcoming paper and to Claudia Köhler for her help in sourcing igures 9 to 11.

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The Aghadoe and River Laune Crosiers - Griffin Murray

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY Armstrong, E.C.R. 1922. ‘Ivory Crozier Head found at Aghadoe Cathedral, County Kerry.’ Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 52, 87. Henry, F. 1970. Irish Art in the Romanesque Period (1020 - 1170 A.D.). London. Murray, G. 2004. ‘The 'hidden power' of the Irish crosier.’ Archaeology Ireland 18:1, 24-7. Murray, G. 2007. ‘Insular-type crosiers: their construction and characteristics’, in R. Moss (ed.) Making and Meaning in Insular Art: Proceedings of the ifth international conference on Insular art held at Trinity College Dublin, 25-28 August 2005. Dublin, pp. 79-94. Murray, G. forthcoming. The Cross of Cong: a masterpiece of medieval Irish art. Dublin. O’Donoghue, D. 1899. ‘The Aghadoe Crozier.’Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 5, 235-243. Ó Floinn, R. 2006. ‘Bishops, liturgy and reform: some archaeological and art historical evidence’, in D. Bracken & D. Ó Riain-Raedel (eds) Ireland and Europe in the Twelfth Century: Reform and Renewal, Dublin, pp. 218-238. Ó Floinn, R. forthcoming. ‘A tale of two croziers’, in R. Stalley (ed.) Medieval Art and Architecture in Limerick and South-West Ireland. The British Archaeological Association, Conference Transactions XXXIV. Leeds.

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Murder, Pillage and Destruction: Archaeological Finds from Medieval Tralee - Laurence Dunne

Murder, Pillage and Destruction: Archaeological Finds from Medieval Tralee LAURENCE DUNNE Walking around Tralee today one would never think that it has existed for almost 800 years and that it once contained four castles, a very large Dominican priory and a medieval parish church. Indeed, the medieval town of Tralee itself is thought to have extended from Moydorewell to High Street. The Desmond Survey of 1584 records a number its streets, including: Burgess Street, Great Castle Street and the street of the New Manor (PRO 1881, 10-11). It would appear that there were several small streets and alleys clustered around its western end towards High Street. Along and around the streets were the houses, workshops and shops of the townspeople, merchants and traders. The Great Castle of Tralee, which was situated more or less in the centre of the town, was inally demolished in 1826 to build Denny Street. Nearby, within hailing distance from it, stood Rice’s Castle, also called the ‘Short Castle’, possibly situated at the site of the Bank of Ireland in Castle Street today, although other accounts place it in the south-eastern corner of the Square. Castle McEllistrum was in Rock Street, while the Countess of Desmond’s manor and castle was in the town park-Princess Street area (PRO 1881, 10-11). It is equally dificult to imagine that Tralee was a port town with vessels discharging and loading goods and trading wares directly from countries like Italy and Spain. The port of Tralee was located along the Brandon Carpark, Ivy Terrace, Staughtons Row area. The last memory of which is still echoed today in the placenames of Quay House and Princess Quay. The religious needs of the people were served by the Tralee parish church of St John that is now subsumed within the current St John the Evangelist church in Ashe Street. The arrival of the Dominicans to Tralee in the 13th century is an indication that the new town of Tralee was growing and prospering. Through time the abbey lourished to become the largest in Ireland with its precincts enclosing ive acres. Today no vestige of the historic town of Tralee survives. It has all completely disappeared, the castles, houses, port, church, abbey and graveyard. The destruction of medieval Tralee was

so extensive that today not a single medieval wall or building survives of the medieval town of Tralee above ground - not a single stone left upon a stone.

Foundation of Tralee and the Dominican Abbey The documented history of Tralee between the 13th and 17th centuries is one of repetitive warfare, burnings, pillage and destruction. Although it is not precisely known when or by whom the town of Tralee was founded it is generally accepted today that it was John FitzThomas FitzGerald, the progenitor of the Earls of Desmond, who built it around 1215 or 1216. The accepted date is based on the establishment of a string of castles along the valley of the River Maine to the sea and also at Killorglin by John FitzThomas and his son Maurice in 1215. This defensive line was essentially the southern boundary of North Kerry. A raid on Tralee in 1234 by Dermot McCarthy and others was routed, seemingly, by John FitzThomas with Dermot and many other Irish nobles slain, ‘the rout of Tráig Lí by the foreigners on the Gaedil...’ (Annals of Innisfallen, Mac Airt 1988, 351). By 1243 it would appear that the population of Tralee had expanded enough to encourage the Dominican Order to settle there. This was an important factor as the Dominicans were mendicant friars who relied on alms (begging) for their sustenance. The likely founder of the Dominican Abbey of the Holy Cross in Tralee was John FitzThomas FitzGerald who was killed along with his son Maurice at the Battle of Callan near Kilgarvan in 1261. Through time the Dominican Abbey lourished under the invocation of the Holy Cross and through the patronage of the Earls of Desmond, the Knight of Kerry and other cadet families of the Desmond nobility. An important historic account of the abbey was recorded in a 1584 survey of the lands and properties forfeited to the Crown following the death of Gerald, the 15th Earl of Desmond. An 61

Murder, Pillage and Destruction: Archaeological Finds from Medieval Tralee - Laurence Dunne extract from the survey is relevant here: The late House of Friars of the Order of St Dominic, alias the White Friars, within the Borough of Tralee... which was large and ample before the rebellion... but now as well the aforesaid house at the church aforesaid, are ruinous and in great decay. Their circuit and precinct with certain gardens and closes of land, inclosed by a stone wall, contain by estimate, 5 acres of land, worth per annum, £2 13s 4d (PRO 1881, 32). The enclosed precinct of ive acres was the largest of any of the houses in Ireland. Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Drogheda, Athy, Carlingford and Naas only had half-an-acre while the closest was Trim with four with Dublin three and Kilkenny two. The Tralee house also had thirteen acres of land outside the abbey walls at Ballyvelly and a further two acres near Dingle. The income from tithes and from their lands and properties, including a mill, outside of the abbey walls was £15 4s 8d (Flynn 1993, 75). Religious persecution in Ireland under Henry VIII led to the ruination of the monastic houses. However, the suppression caused no serious disruption of the Tralee Dominicans; they were left in possession of their houses due to the protection of the Earl of Desmond (Flynn 1993, 35). The Catholic restoration, introduced after Mary Tudor’s accession to the throne in 1553, brought a revival of religious orders. Revenues and incomes due to the Tralee Dominicans were restored and with inancial support from the Earl of Desmond, the community was able to recover and repair some of its property which had been sold (ibid. 45). This respite did not last long and with the ascendancy of Queen Elizabeth dark times arrived once more in Kerry. One of the most infamous events was the massacre of an expeditionary force of around six hundred Italians and Spanish, under a Papal lag, at Dún an Óir, Smerwick Harbour by Lord Grey de Wilton in 1579. The same year two government oficials, Arthur Carter and Henry Davells were murdered in Tralee Castle by the Earl of Desmond’s brothers thereby forcing the earl into open revolt. In 1580 the earl abandoned Tralee after irst burning it and all the castles to the ground in advance of the impending arrival of a force of three hundred footmen and a company of horse (cavalry) under Sir William Pelham, the 62

Lord Justice. Pelham had to occupy the Dominican buildings as everything else was destroyed. The destruction of the Desmond lordship coincided with a collapse in the organised Dominican conventual life (ibid. 74). Following the killing of Gerald the 15th Earl of Desmond in 1583 the Desmond possessions were divided up by the Crown. Tralee, including the Dominican abbey, and 6000 acres was granted to Colonel Edward Denny for his active part in the massacre at Smerwick and other services rendered to the Crown. The Desmond Survey of 1587 states that ‘... Tralee, which was formerly a well-inhabited borough, with a castle and ediices in it, formerly well and fully repaired, but now ruined and broken’. The same account also mentions that many of the buildings, burgages, tenements, land and gardens of Tralee are now ‘ruined, broken, prostrated and waste’ (PRO 1881, 10-11). In the same year, 1587, the Dominicans were forced to disperse although some friars remained in hiding until 1633. Before Denny could begin to enjoy his reward from Elizabeth another rebellion occurred, this time by the sugán (straw) Earl of Desmond in 1598 forcing the English to abandon the town. A report to the Crown in 1598 stated that the traitors in Kerry intended ‘to break down the Abbey of Tralee … with all other buildings it to receive any garrisons’ on the approach of any English force (Atkinson 1895, 415). It was inevitable that the abbey should be levelled as it was really the only place left standing that could accommodate occupation troops as had been the case by Pelham in 1580. In 1600 the rebellion was put down and English forces under the command of Sir George Carew once again occupied Tralee. Carew found Sir Edward Denny’s house (castle) ‘utterly defaced, nothing being left unbroken but a few old vaults’ (Atkinson 1903, 366-367). Tralee was destroyed to such an extent that in 1600 serious consideration was given to building a new town at Castlemaine but Tralee was preferred because ‘...it was more open to the sea and land than the other, and more convenient for the whole shire’ (Brewer & Bullen 1869, 505). A generation of calm followed during which Sir Edward Denny began to rebuild the Great Castle of Tralee. In 1612 Denny was given permission to wall the town and although a commission was set up to gather in taxes to fund the construction, the walling of Tralee never took place. The

Murder, Pillage and Destruction: Archaeological Finds from Medieval Tralee - Laurence Dunne following year Tralee received its Charter and in 1627 Denny entered his newly rebuilt castle with his family. The friars returned once more in 1622 and by 1633 there were twelve Dominicans in Kerry (Coleman 1902, 65). After the relatively quiet period of the irst decades of the 17th century bloodshed and warfare broke out once more in the rebellion of 1641 with most of Tralee once again destroyed. Many of the English led Tralee although several hundred were under siege by the Irish Confederate forces in the Great Castle and Short Castle for over six months. The war lasted for over ten years until inally crushed by Cromwellian forces. The abbey in Tralee was completely levelled to the ground in 1652 and the community led to Castlemaine. The destruction by Cromwellian iconoclasts was entire, nothing was left intact, while particular attention was paid to any religious statue, image or tomb which were shattered into pieces. There was no part of the town that could be used by the Crowmwellian forces and they were compelled to erect a camp a couple of miles south of the town. The remains of this Cromwellian camp are still discernible today in the townland of Camp on the road to Castlemaine from which it gets its name.

Fragments of Tralee Although no buildings castles or abbey survive there is a collection of architectural fragments of very inely carved and beautifully decorated and dressed masonry from the medieval Dominican Abbey. The majority of these medieval fragments were gathered from various locations around Tralee in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and eventually built into a grotto to Our Lady in the garden of the Dominicans in Day Place. A number of other notable fragments of the abbey are located within and beside St John the Baptist church in Castle Street and another has been built into a tomb in the graveyard of St John the Evangelist, in Ashe Street, Tralee while one or two others have been reused in structures around the town. More recently, several fragments recovered from modern excavations, have also been deposited in Kerry County Museum. Of pertinence to this article is another recent collection of archaeological inds discovered over the last ive years by the

author. These artefacts were found primarily in the course of archaeological excavations, although some were discovered by close examination of old walls and graveyards around the town, as well as foraging during several visits to the Dominican grotto. The most productive archaeological excavations were undertaken in and around the site of the Dominican Abbey i.e. at Bridge Place in 2005 and between Upper Abbey Street and Dominick Street, incorporating the Abbey Inn and Val O’Shea’s Pub (Dunne 2005 & 2007) (Figure 1). Several exciting archaeological inds dating from the 14th to the 17th centuries were made, some of which have never been found before in Ireland.

Decorated roof bosses In the course of several visits to the Dominican garden in Day Place to examine the medieval architectural fragments I was delighted to discover a roof boss (Figure 2 right). The fragment had previously been recorded and described but remarkably not identiied as a boss (Bradley et al 1987, 110). Roof bosses are the uppermost stone of a pointed arch found in the rib-vaulted ceilings of medieval Gothic churches. In simple terms the length of a church is divided into a number of connected vaulted ceilings or bays. At the highest point of each bay is the boss from which a number of ribs radiate out from in curving arches to support the ceiling. The development of the pointed Gothic arch was one of the main technological advancement in medieval architecture as it enabled the construction of much taller churches and cathedrals allowing for more windows and slender lighter construction. The boss in the Dominican garden has six chamfered ribs radiating from it, two of which run transversely while the other four radiate diagonally dividing the rectangular roof vault into four sections known as a quadripartite rib vault. Curiously there are two opposing triangles on the boss that project from the angles of the diagonal ribs. The carved triangles are a design feature but possibly were also used for positioning or directional aids for the mason during construction of the vault. The centre of the boss is circular and has a multiform loral motif executed in relief and comprising six leur-de-lys linked to a small central circle. The leur-de-lys also radiate along the same direction as the ribs. 63

Murder, Pillage and Destruction: Archaeological Finds from Medieval Tralee - Laurence Dunne

Figure 1: Map of Tralee town centre (1842) with areas excavated by the author highlighted. 64

Murder, Pillage and Destruction: Archaeological Finds from Medieval Tralee - Laurence Dunne

Figure 2: Three roof bosses from the Dominican abbey. During a visit to Tralee in 1838 John Windele recorded another decorated roof boss in the Convent Garden, Tralee (Figure 2 centre). This roof boss is decorated with two intertwined dragons devouring one another. It has been lost for many years but a drawing of it is preserved in the Windele Mss. in the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin (Windele Ms 12C 11, p.211; Harbison 1974, 143-144). The original location identiied by Windele as the Convent Garden is a bit of a mystery. The current Dominican garden that houses Our Lady’s Grotto was not in existence in 1838. Indeed the Dominicans only formally returned to Tralee in 1861 and it was another ten years before the current Dominican church was blessed and opened. It is possible therefore that the Convent Garden referred to by Windele might be the Presentation Nuns who arrived in Tralee in 1809. Architecturally, the missing boss is very similar to the leur-de-lys boss with six chamfered ribs radiating from it as well as the two triangles projecting from between the ribs. More recently the author discovered a third decorated roof boss, this time in the graveyard of St John the Evangelist in Ashe Street, Tralee. It has been built into the tomb of Rev Edward Day (Figures 2 left & 3). Only the central circular section of the boss is visible, the ribs were either trimmed off or are concealed behind the render of the tomb. The decoration is of a type of wingless dragon with a serpentine intertwined body and two clawed legs. The monster has a tasselled head, a large circular eye and an open mouth displaying a set of sharp carnivorous teeth. The carving is almost entirely set within a banded circle except for part of its intertwined body that extends into two protruding triangles. This extension of the motif is a deliberate design feature that Harbison also noted on the Windele boss (ibid).The only difference is that the two

triangles are set at right angles to one another whereas the ones on the Windele boss and the leur-de-lys boss are directly or transversely opposed. This two-legged or bipedal dragon boss on the Rev Edward Day tomb is possibly a Lindworm. These legendary creatures apparently mainly occur in Scandanavian or Germanic tales and often inhabit graveyards where they dig up and eat human corpses! It is assumed that the boss was inserted for its artistic appreciation while unwittingly ignorant of its rather more macabre symbolism. The 300mm diameter of the boss is the same as the leurde-lys one in the Dominican garden. Architecturally and artistically there are shared characteristics between all three

Figure 3: Recently identified roof boss. 65

Murder, Pillage and Destruction: Archaeological Finds from Medieval Tralee - Laurence Dunne

Figure 4: Diagram showing calculation for the span of a roof vault in the Dominican abbey, part 1.

Figure 5: Diagram showing calculation for the span of a roof vault in the Dominican abbey, part 2.

roof bosses that strongly indicate that the three are all from the medieval Dominican Abbey in Tralee. Decorated stone roof bosses are rare in Ireland so the discovery of at least three from the Dominican Priory in Tralee demonstrates that this was a very inely decorated and impressive church.

it was possible to calculate the span of the rib-vault using a mathematical formula that provided a transverse width of 6.8m for the Tralee priory. Using the same calculations we can also determine that each rectangular vaulted bay is 2.4m in length (Figure 5). The 6.8m width of the Tralee priory is comparable to other Dominican houses i.e. Kilmallock 6.6m and Athenry 6.6m.

Springer stone While foraging around the side and rear of Our Lady’s Grotto in the Dominican’s garden, where the larger heavier medieval architectural fragments are lying and partially concealed under vegetation, I fortuitously came across a springer stone of the rib-vault of the priory church. The springer stone is the irst stone from which the arch of a vault commences or springs from. It has three chamfered ribs comprising of a central transverse rib and two diagonal ribs which are of exactly the same dimensions as the ribs emanating from the roof boss (Figure 4). By measuring the angle of the curvature of the springer in association with the angles of the roof boss 66

Knights Tomb Effigy

Four wonderful fragments of a knights tomb efigy, carved in high relief, were discovered during our excavations under the rear of the Abbey Inn and Val O’Sheas Pub in the Upper Abbey Street / Dominick Street area in 2007 (Figure 1). The four limestone fragments, which it together as two separate pairs, represent part of the lower limbs of a knight in life size wearing body armour (Figures 6 & 7). The efigy fragments are worn but it is clear that the armour the knight is wearing is chain mail. Two of the fragments, from the extreme bottom

Murder, Pillage and Destruction: Archaeological Finds from Medieval Tralee - Laurence Dunne

Figure 6: Knight effigy fragments 1.

right hand corner of the efigy, comprise his right lower foot and shin. On his legs he is wearing chausses which were leggings including socks of chain mail. Also visible on his right foot is a spur attached by a leather strap the tongue of which extends out from the right side in a lourish. It is dificult to determine for certain if the spur is a prick or rowel type as the break between the two fragments occurs here. However, it would appear to be the simpler prick type. The other pair of matched fragments are from the lower left side and chamfered edge of the tomb top. They form most of the knights left calf and knee area although a tiny piece of the right leg is also discernible. Just below the left knee there is a wide garter that would have held up the chausses while a tiny fragment of the right garter also survives. The left calf is undercut, totally free of the rest of the body of the knight. The angle of the calf denotes that the knight is lying slightly on his side with the left leg crossed over and free of the right. Visible on three of the four fragments is the knights long outer over garment or surcoat. The folds of the surcoat drape over the edge of the tomb table or bed upon which he lies.

Figure 7: Knight effigy fragments 2. The sleeveless surcoat would have had the knights arms emblazoned on it and was split up the front and back for horse riding. It also helped prevent the metal chain mail from getting too hot in the sun. The knight’s right foot rests on the hindquarters of a lion lying in a partially submissive posture. The left back leg of the lion is set squarely under its body while the right back leg projects out awkwardly behind, extending over the chamfered edge of the table of the tomb chest. The lion’s tail curls up under its body in a passive manner. The knight’s foot resting on the lion symbolises kingly strength, majesty and virtue that some scholars see parallels with Christ. There are about one hundred and ifty or so tomb efigies known from Ireland comprising three main groups, ecclesiastics, secular and military. The largest group, of at least ifty, represent military igures in armour. Early tomb efigies were reserved for ecclesiastics-Ardfert has two efigies of bishops from the mid 13th century. These early forms of tomb efigies are carved in low relief and set lush with the loor. Secular efigies began to appear irst in Germany and then spread to 67

Murder, Pillage and Destruction: Archaeological Finds from Medieval Tralee - Laurence Dunne France where the type’s most celebrated form-the knightly efigy was developed. This type rapidly migrated to England and ultimately over to Ireland. Tomb sculpture underwent a rapid evolution at the end of the 13th century whereby they developed into full life-size three-dimensional representations that were placed on tomb chests and sometimes covered by elaborate canopies. It would appear that tomb efigies were also elaborately painted sometimes with their coat of arms emblazoned. The fact that the leg of the Tralee knight is carved fully undercut appears to be unique in Ireland. There are similarities with the late 13th-early 14th century Graiguenamanagh efigy from Co. Kilkenny (Hunt 1974, 171, cat. no. 109, ig. 9). However, there are a number of parallels to be found in Britain, in particular at Dorchester Abbey where the tomb efigy of William de Valence who died 1282 is located. This efigy is possibly the most famous of its type, being an exquisite piece of sculpture very life like, still exhibiting traces of blue, red and green paint in the folds of the cloak. Another similar efigy is the tomb of William Marshall, the second Earl of Pembroke in the Temple Church, London.

John Hunt in his seminal work Irish Medieval Figure Sculpture deines two distinct groups of military efigiesPeriod 1, 1200-1350 and Period 2, 1450-1570. The intervening hundred years i.e. between 1350-1450 Hunt describes as a cultural hiatus based largely on the Black Death of 134849 that left behind little by way of funeral sculpture (Hunt 1974, 52-57). The armour displayed on military efigies is one of the main techniques in establishing a developmental chronology for them and the changes or improvements in armour are reasonably distinct. Indeed, chainmail ceased to be used around 1340, to be replaced by the much improved plate armour. Apart from these four tomb fragments the only other fragment of a chest tomb is a gable end panel section depicting a knight that was formerly part of Our Lady’s Grotto in the Dominican garden and is now located in Kerry County Museum (Figure 8). The Knight, or possibly a Gallowglass, may have been one of a series of ‘weepers’ who are often featured along the sides and ends of efigy tombs. The knights panel has been given a date in the second half of the 15th century (Harbison 1973, 17). However, it is likely that the piece dates from the 14th century as the ‘heater’ type shield that the warrior holds was 68

Figure 8: Tomb fragment from Dominican garden. no longer used in the 15th century. It is conceivable therefore that the tomb gable is contemporaneous with the knight’s tomb efigy fragments or even formed part of it. So who was this Tralee knight? It would appear that the Dominican Abbey in Tralee was the favoured burial place of the Earls of Desmond. An extract from the Desmond Survey of 1584 records that the abbey in Tralee ‘...had a certain church adjoined to it, in which the ancestors of the said late Earl were honourably buried’ (PRO 1881, 32). This certain church adjoining the Dominican priory in Tralee was a Lady Chapel adjoining it (dedicated to the Virgin Mary). Another account records that the 10th Earl of Desmond, James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald was buried ‘...in the sepulchre of his fathers’ at Tralee while the same manuscript also states that the abbey was a favoured burial ground for other Geraldine families including the Knight of Kerry ‘...who possessed a splendid tomb in the Lady chapel, surmounted by beautiful paintings on the wall’ (Coleman 1902, 65). According to Rowan (1854, 33-4) there were at least three Lords of Desmond and seven Earls interred in the Dominican Abbey of the Holy Cross, Tralee. As the Tralee knight is wearing chain mail armour we can rule out any interment after the mid fourteenth century even if we consider the possibility that chain mail may have continued to be used in Ireland longer than in England or mainland Europe.

Murder, Pillage and Destruction: Archaeological Finds from Medieval Tralee - Laurence Dunne

Figure 9: Plan of burial 1 during excavation.

The irst lords of Kerry to be interred in the Tralee Abbey were the founder John FitzThomas FitzGerald along with his son Maurice were both slain at the Battle of Callan in 1261. At the time of their deaths Maurice’s son, Thomas, was only a babe in arms and obviously could not then have commissioned such an elaborate and expensive tomb. Another possibility is that the efigy was created when Thomas was an adult as it was not uncommon for descendents to erect monuments to their long dead ancestors.

Thomas was known as Tomás an Ápa-Thomas the Ape, apparently amid the turmoil in the immediate aftermath of the deaths of his father and grandfather he had been taken from his cradle by the family’s pet ape who carried him around the tower of the church until inally coaxed to return the infant safely. Tomás died in 1296, a date more suited to the style of the efigy and the currency of chain mail. However, according to Fr Benedict O’Sullivan, this story is ‘purely apocryphal’ and refers to the account of how he received his sobriquet of the ape as being an etiological legend i.e. a plausible iction put out by the Geraldines to disguise the fact that Tomás was a hunchback (O’Sullivan 2009, 38). If this was the case then it is extremely unlikely that the tomb was his. Whatever the

truth of the matter, Thomas led a fairly undistinguished life militarily and does not appear to be a suitable candidate. The most likely candidate is Maurice FitzThomas FitzGerald the warring 1st Earl of Desmond also known as Maurice the Great who died in 1356 and was interred in Tralee. Maurice’s life was turbulent with numerous conlicts, intrigue and conspiracies throughout his life for which he was outlawed twice. He served the crown during the Bruce invasion and was made 1st Earl of Desmond in 1329 and awarded Kerry as a palatinate. In 1335, under military summons, he fought in Scotland at Bute and Arran (Sayles 1961, 214). Ten years later he wrote to the kings of France and Scotland encouraging them to war with England and he would do likewise in Ireland (ibid, 219). The second time he was outlawed, between 1345 and 1349, he lived in Gloucestershire for two years with his mother’s family, the Berkleys, while he negotiated his restoration. Edward III eventually restored him and made him Justiciar of Ireland in 1355, a year before his death. During his enforced stay in England he would have seen the tombs of many other powerful knights possibly including that of Wm. De Valence in Dorchester in the neighbouring county of Dorset which could not but have impressed him. 69

Murder, Pillage and Destruction: Archaeological Finds from Medieval Tralee - Laurence Dunne inlicted by at least two separate weapons one of which was an extremely sharp thin bladed weapon while the other was unusually blunt. Seven sharp force marks from at least six individual blows were detected on the bones of the victim’s lower body including the top of his left hip. Two downward blows cut into the outside of the femur or thigh bone of his left leg just above the knee with fracture lines radiating from the points of impact. A single upward blow cut into the man’s right thigh with fragments of bone breaking off as the assailant withdrew the blade. The lower left leg bones (tibia and ibula) were struck with a single blow almost severing the ibula and cutting into the tibia at the same time with fractures detected again around the point of impact. Another single upward blow was inlicted to the inside of left tibia with pieces of bone laking off as the weapon was pulled out. Sixteen blade cuts were identiied in the man’s upper skeleton, some of which can be attributed to a single blow. The majority of the blows were to the victim’s left upper side with nine cut marks to the left scapula and clavicle (shoulder blade and

Figure 10: Cut marks on left femur of Burial 1.

Human Remains The excavations in the Upper Abbey Street / Dominick Street area in 2007 revealed a total of six adult skeletons, four of which were males, one was female while the sex of the other could not be determined. In general they were in a poor fragmentary condition. They were found beneath a deep organic layer basically lying on green sterile mud. Five of six adult burials were laid out in an extended, formal manner with the head to the west. The other skeleton, identiied as Burial 1, was an adult male between 25 and 30 years of age and 1.65m tall (Figure 9). This individual was given a more careless or possibly hasty burial and although the remains were roughly oriented east-west, both legs and the left arm were lexed or bent outward. Some of the skeletal remains were missing including the entire right arm, the feet and the skull. In the course of excavation a small number of cut marks were identiied on the bones (Figure 10). Further cut marks were identiied after the bones were cleaned. The skeletal remains were examined by osteoarchaeologist Linda Lynch who identiied a total of twenty-three individual cuts inlicted by sharp force trauma (Figure 11). These cut marks were 70

Figure 11: Diagram indicating the position of trauma cut marks evident on skeleton.

Murder, Pillage and Destruction: Archaeological Finds from Medieval Tralee - Laurence Dunne collar bone). These injuries were inlicted from above and behind the victim by a right-handed assailant cutting quickly into the shoulder. A single cut was inlicted to the right shoulder blade cutting it through. A single blow, inlicted from above, cut into the man’s upper left arm or humerus while two injuries cut into two separate ribs, both of which were entirely severed. Finally, two sharp bladed blows were inlicted on the victim’s neck from behind. The irst blow was inlicted just above the shoulders but did not completely cut through. The second coup-de-grace completely severed the head from the body at the second cervical vertebra just below the skull. All of the injuries identiied were wounds i.e. they were inlicted immediately before death. The attack on this man by possibly two assailants or by a single assailant with two weapons is staggering in its brutal savagery. The upward cuts to the victim’s legs suggest that the man may have been mounted on a horse when inlicted resulting in him falling to the ground and while staggering to his knees was quickly and viciously cut down from behind by irst disabling him by severing the muscles on his arms and shoulders, particularly the man’s left suggesting that he was left handed. The amount of the blows, their force and penetration detected on the skeleton is incredible and most likely does not relect the true number of blows that the man received that did not hit a bone. All of the cut marks were peri-mortem, inlicted immediately before death. If the victim had been a soldier one would expect to ind older healed cut marks to his bones, however, none were identiied.

The skeleton was radiocarbon dated to the 15th or early 16th centuries. Further trauma followed this poor individual long after his horriic death when his skeleton was impaled by three wooden posts that were unwittingly driven into the soft waterlogged ground as part of a series of piles to build a wall on in the 18th century (Dunne 2007).

Conclusion There is no doubt that the history of Tralee since its foundation in the early decades of the 13th century is one of bloodshed and repetitive warfare and destruction. The shattered and broken fragments of the abbey scattered throughout Tralee are testament to the savagery of its history. The quality and beauty of the fragments of the abbey and the knight’s tomb efigy clearly demonstrate that Tralee must also have had periods of peace to construct such a magniicent abbey church that was without doubt the main burial place of the Earls of Desmonds and other nobility of Kerry. The ethnic cleansing of the ordinary population of Tralee, the Desmond nobility and the religious communities, a process commenced with vigour by the Elizabethans in the sixteenth century, was entirely completed by the Cromwellians in 1653. The archaeological inds demonstrate that through all these immensely troubled times there were periods of brief respite that reveal that the human spirit endures and life carries on.

The manner and clandestine location of his burial appears to relect his death. The victim was hastily buried outside the walls of the Dominican Abbey in poor marginal unhallowed ground. The burial was most likely undertaken by his enemies without any care or ceremony or the beneit of any Christian rite, merely thrown into a grave without a cofin or a winding sheet.

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Murder, Pillage and Destruction: Archaeological Finds from Medieval Tralee - Laurence Dunne

BIBLIOGRAPHY Atkinson, E.G. (ed.) 1895. Calendar of the State Papers relating to Ireland: Jan. 1598 – March 1599. London. Atkinson, E.G. (ed.) 1903. Calendar of the State Papers relating to Ireland: March – October 1600. London. Bradley, J., Halpin, A. and King, H. A. 1987. Urban Archaeological Survey. Part XIV. County Kerry. Unpublished report, Ofice of Public Works. Brewer, J.S. & Bullen, W. (eds) 1868. Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts 2: 1574-88. London. Coleman, A. 1902. The Irish Dominicans of the seventeenth century by Father John O’Heyne 1706 (Trans. reprint with appendix.). Dundalk. Dunne, L. 2005. Archaeological Impact Assessment Report, Bridge Place, Tralee. Unpublished report Eachtra Archaeological Projects. Dunne, L. forthcoming. Archaeological Excavations 2007, Abbey Street/Dominick Street, Tralee. Flynn, T.S. 1993. The Irish Dominicans 1536 - 1641. Dublin. Harbison, P. 1973. ‘Some Medieval Sculpture in Kerry.’ Journal of the Kerry Archaeological and Historical Society 6, 9-25. Harbison, P. 1974. ‘A lost Gothic roof-boss from Tralee.’ Journal of the Kerry Archaeological and Historical Society 7, 143-4. Hunt, J. 1974. Irish Medieval Figure Sculpture, 1200-1600, 2 Vols. Dublin. Mac Airt, S. (ed.) 1988. The Annals of Innisfallen. Dublin. O’Sullivan, B. 2009. Medieval Irish Dominican Studies. Dublin. PRO, 1881. ‘Survey of the Honors, Manors, Lordships, Lands etc, forfeited by Gerald, 15th Earl of Desmond and his adherents in Kerry, 1584’. Translated from the Latin original in the Public Records Ofice, Dublin. Rowan, A.B. 1854. ‘The Antiquities of Tralee.’ Kerry Magazine 1, 33-36. Sayles, G.O. 1961. ‘The Rebellious First Earl of Desmond’, in J.A. Watt, J.B. Morrall and F.X. Martin (eds.), Medieval Studies Presented to Aubrey Gwynn S.J. Dublin, pp. 205-229. Windele Ms. 12 C 11, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin.

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Irish Sheela-na-gigs: the Kerry Connection - Eamonn P. Kelly

Irish Sheela-na-gigs: the Kerry Connection EAMONN P. KELLY Sheela-na-gigs are grotesque medieval sculptures of naked females posed in a manner that displays and emphasises the genitalia. About 122 Irish examples are known or recorded and, of those that survive on monuments, they are divided evenly between carvings that occur on medieval churches and those found on tower houses. In the post-medieval period it would appear that many of the igures were removed from their settings, with some of them turning up subsequently in graveyards where they were buried for concealment. Other carvings were apparently dumped in rivers like examples from the river Cashen at Lixnaw, Co. Kerry (Figure 1) and the river Figile at Clonbulloge, Co. Offaly (Figure 2). Coming irst to antiquarian attention during the nineteenth century, academic interest in sheela-na-gigs has grown steadily since then. The igures may appear to be squatting or reclining and while the hands may be placed in a variety of positions they normally call attention to the genital area. Typological studies of the igures have not produced particularly signiicant results. Following the publication in 1977 of Dr Jørgen Andersen's important book The Witch on the Wall. Medieval Erotic Sculpture in the British Isles, the sculptures have found a general audience and growing interest in feminism, Celtic spirituality

Figure 2: Sheela-na-gig carved on a quoin, found in the river Figile, Clonbulloge, Co. Offaly (© National Museum of Ireland).

and New Age beliefs has served to promote further interest in the carvings. The igures have generated controversy in Ireland and apocryphal stories have been told about them.

What’s in a name? The name sheela-na-gig is a local Irish name recorded in 1840 for exhibitionist carvings at Kiltinane Church and Rochestown Church Co. Tipperary. However, we have no way of telling how widely used the term was at the time. Although its meaning is uncertain, possible interpretations of the name are: Síle na gCíoch (Sheela of the breasts), Síle-ina-giob (Sheela on her hunkers), Síle-na-gigh (Sheela of the vagina), Sidhe lena gigh (Fairy Woman with her vagina). However giob and gigh are slang words, not standard Gaelic terms: in standard Gaelic, ‘gig’ is the word for ‘a tickling’, which opens up other possible interpretations of the name. Although the ‘gig’ element in the name is problematical the ‘sheela’ element appears to provide useful insights. Síle is the Irish form of the personal name Cecilia (Latin Caecilia), which was brought into Ireland by the Anglo-Normans. From the nineteenth century Síle has also been used as an equivalent for Julia, Judy, Judith, Jenny, Selia, Celia, Sabina and Sally and the anglicised forms are Sheila, Shiela, Sheela and Shelagh. St Cecilia was a 2nd-3rd century Roman martyr who was given in marriage to a pagan named Valerianus. In the weddingchamber, Cecilia told Valerianus that she was betrothed to an angel who jealously guarded her body; therefore Valerianus must take care not to violate her virginity. St Cecilia became a patron saint of music and there are medieval representations of her in a range of media. St Cecilia’s sexual unavailability may be seen as promoting chaste living while music may be associated with licentious living over which the saint seeks to exercise a restraining inluence. Given that St Cecilia possesses these attributes, the association of the name Cecilia (Síle)

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Irish Sheela-na-gigs: the Kerry Connection - Eamonn P. Kelly

74

Figure 1: Sheela-na-gig found in the river Cashen at Lixnaw, Co. Kerry, now on display in Kerry County Museum (© National Museum of Ireland).

Irish Sheela-na-gigs: the Kerry Connection - Eamonn P. Kelly with Irish exhibitionist igures may indicate that one possible function of the igures is to warn against the sin of lust. Dictionary deinitions associated with ‘Síle’ relate generally to concepts of wanton or inappropriate sexuality. In his Foclóir Gaedilge agus Béarla an Irish-English Dictionary (Dublin, 1927), P. S. Dinneen’s deinitions of ‘Síle’ include ‘An effeminate or uxorious man; a boy too fond of girls’ society, a girl too fond of being with boys’. Other deinitions provided by Dinneen are also of possibly relevance: ‘Síle an ragaid, a bird of the crane species’ where ‘ragaid’ is deined as ‘unsatisfactory behaviour or condition, loose living, anything coarse or unmanageable, tough meat, etc’. However, there is also a dictionary entry by Dinneen for Síle ní Gadra, which is deined as meaning ‘a personiication of Ireland’. In the late nineteenth century the anglicised form ‘Sheela na Guira’, was attributed to a sheela-na-gig in Cullahill Castle, Co. Laois, which local tradition held was the igure of a former head of the O’Gara family. This linguistic and folklore evidence suggests that sheela-na-gigs may have become associated with the protection and control of land and lordly status, and this possibility will be explored later.

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Classical antecedents of sheela-na-gigs It is a view widely held that sheela-na-gigs are part of a tradition of exhibitionist carvings that developed in Western Europe within the Romanesque architectural tradition and that the igures are based ultimately on classical representations of fertility goddesses. Female ‘Baubo’ igurines were commonplace in Greece and Ptolemaic Egypt during the third to second centuries BC and, where represented, Baubo is inclined to touch herself as part of a speciic sexual purpose (Figure 3). Connected with a women’s cult concerned with childbirth and fertility, the igures, often in the form of small amulets, are found in or near the women’s rooms in Egyptian houses. In Greek mythology Baubo features in a story in which she is associated with Demeter, goddess of fertility. St Clement of Alexandria (born c.150AD) was extremely knowledgeable about Greek myths and cults. He gives an account of Baubo in which she displays her private parts to Demeter to induce laughter designed to banish her depression over the kidnapping of her daughter Persephone. Clement’s account of Baubo was an attempt to distort and trivialise an important ritual of the Eleusian Mysteries. The inclusion of Clement’s account in Christian writings, together with knowledge of the igures themselves, may have played a part in the creation of Romanesque female

Figure 3: Female ‘Baubo’ figurine excavated at the settlement of Naukratis, a Greek trading settlement in the Nile Delta, Egypt (© National Museum of Ireland).

exhibitionist carvings that in turn gave rise to the Irish sheela-na-gigs.

Romanesque exhibitionist figures Romanesque architecture prevailed throughout Western Europe from the middle of the tenth century to the middle of the twelfth century and its forms were largely determined by Roman prototypes. Characteristic of the style was the semicircular arch, frequently used in elaborate doorways, as well as wide pillars with decorated capitals. New churches, cathedrals and religious houses were built in the style, especially along pilgrimage routes - which attracted large numbers of the faithful.

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Irish Sheela-na-gigs: the Kerry Connection - Eamonn P. Kelly Throughout the medieval church, the sin of lust was given particular prominence and the church considered pilgrims to be vulnerable, especially from the attentions of prostitutes who thronged the pilgrimage routes. Churches located along the pilgrimage routes, such as the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, depicted a range of exhibitionist igures, both male and female, together with related carvings whose function was to alert the faithful to the dangers of the sin of lust. In the Romanesque art of the period, lust was often portrayed as a naked woman whose breasts and genitalia were eaten by toads and serpents. This was an adaption of an image, known in

organs by which they had offended (Figure 4). In the period immediately prior to the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169AD, renewed contact with Europe led to changes in Irish religious architecture and sculpture. This was partly through the pilgrimages of Irish kings, aristocrats and prominent churchmen to continental shrines where they became familiar with Romanesque architecture with its exhibitionist and related igures.

Figure 5: Exhibitionist figure within a lozengeshaped moulding located at the top of the outer arch, Nun’s Chapel, Clonmacnoise, Co. Offaly. The legs are splayed and bent back to frame the large head of the figure (© Department of the Environment Heritage and Local Government). The Irish Romanesque architecture that developed in the twelfth century shows links with western France and exhibitionist igures are included among its motifs, such as the igure between two beasts at Rath church, Co. Clare and that on the arch of the Nun's Chapel, Clonmacnoise, completed in 1167AD (Figure 5).

Figure 4: The enlarged genitalia of the sheelana-gig from Cavan, Co. Cavan may relate to the Church’s teaching that sinners were punished in hell through the bodily organs by which they had offended (© National Museum of Ireland). antiquity, of Tellus Mater, the Earth Mother, who was represented suckling snakes, ancient symbols of the earth. Emphasis on the genitalia - which are usually enlarged - related to the Church's teaching that sinners were punished in hell through the bodily 76

The Anglo-Normans

Irish Romanesque exhibitionist igures occur on churches as details in larger sculptural compositions, whereas most sheelana-gigs occur as isolated igures and are later in date. Indeed, it may be that Irish sheela-na-gigs are not a development in Ireland from Romanesque exhibitionist igures, but rather a separate (albeit related) phenomenon introduced from Britain by the Anglo-Normans. Found scattered throughout Britain as a part of Romanesque art, sheela-na-gigs are relatively numerous

Irish Sheela-na-gigs: the Kerry Connection - Eamonn P. Kelly on churches in Wales and the adjoining border areas of England, as well as around the Bristol Channel – the very areas from which the Anglo-Norman invaders of Ireland came. This may suggest that exhibitionist igures were re-introduced into Ireland by the Anglo-Normans in a second wave from Britain. In Ireland the main areas in which sheela-na-gigs are found are areas where there was heavy Anglo-Norman settlement. The greatest concentrations are found in north Munster (including north Kerry), Ossory and the midlands, being virtually absent

Figure 6: Sheela-na-gig carved on a corbel, Birr, Co. Offaly (© National Museum of Ireland). from the far west and north of the island. In Ireland, sheela-nagigs are not commonly found on corbels - they occur usually as isolated carvings on gables or in proximity to doors and windows – nevertheless, the presence of a sheela-na-gig on a corbel from Birr, Co. Offaly (Figure 6) may suggest connections with related carvings on corbels in Britain, such as a famous example on Kilpeck church, Herefordshire, England.

The most westerly Irish example is found at Aghagower, Co. Mayo and it is perhaps signiicant that this is a church site located on a pilgrimage route to the important Patrician shrine at Croagh Patrick.

Sheela-na-gigs on church sites Claims that the sheela-na-gig has its origins in pre-Christian Ireland have been based partly on a igure from Tara, Co. Meath, however, the igure in question probably derives from a medieval church, rebuilt at Tara in the sixteenth century. The Tara carving can be compared to a carving from Swords Glebe, Co. Dublin which also probably lanked the doorway of a medieval church. The earliest Irish sheela-na-gigs occur on churches where they may have functioned as warnings against the sin of lust and this can be seen as relecting the Anglo-Norman Church’s concerns regarding Irish marriage laws, and the existence among the Irish of divorce, concubinage and married clergy. From the twelfth century onwards new monastic orders, such as: the Cistercians, Augustinians and Dominicans, came to Ireland from the continent and sheela-na-gigs are found associated with their foundations. A igure known as ‘the Idol of Blue Anchor Lane’ Clonmel, Co. Tipperary may, originally, have come from a Dominican priory near where it was discovered in 1944. A sheela-na-gig from the early Irish monastery of Seir Keirán, Co. Offaly is almost certainly not associated with the early history of that site but to a later time, after it had been re-organised about 1200 AD as a house of the Cannons Regular of St Augustine. A sheela-na-gig is also associated with the Augustinian Abbey, Fethard, Co. Tipperary. At Rattoo, Co. Kerry (Figure 7), close to the ruins of a ifteenth century church and an Augustinian abbey founded as a hospital around1200AD, there is a round tower that was constructed around 1100AD on the site of a monastery founded earlier by St Lugach. A sheela-na-gig (Figure 8) is carved on the north window facing into the inside of the round tower. Carved in relief on two stones, the head and the shoulders are set on the end of the lintel stone and the rest is on the jamb stone below it. It is a small igure measuring 30cm from head to foot. The feet are touching at the heels and the legs are bent at the knees and splayed. The igure has prominent rectangular jug ears and the hands appear to point towards the genitalia. At Abbeydorney, Co. Kerry there is another small exhibitionist igure that has been rebuilt into a modern tomb (Figure 9) 77

Irish Sheela-na-gigs: the Kerry Connection - Eamonn P. Kelly

Figure 7: View of Rattoo Church, Co. Kerry and the earlier round tower that has a sheela-na-gig carved on the inside of a window (© National Museum of Ireland). but which was probably attached originally to Kyrie Eleison Abbey, a Cistercian monastery founded by O Torna, chieftain of the region, in 1154AD. The right hand of the igure is raised while the left hand gestures towards the genital area. The legs are splayed and the igure has an over-sized head with large rounded jug-ears. Sheela-na-gigs are also found on parish churches that postdate the Anglo-Norman invasion. At Newtown Lenan Church, Co. Tipperary, a carving was built into the wall of a church which contained elements dating back to the twelfth century and a inely carved igure is associated with a thirteenth century parish church at Ballylarkin, Co. Kilkenny. In Kerry, a sheelana-gig is displayed on a medieval parish church at Kilsarkan East. The igure (Figure 10), which is located above a pointed side window, has widely splayed legs, a large head and rounded jug ears. A cable moulding on the head represents hair which is not commonly represented on sheela-na-gigs. The genital area is eroded by being rubbed by visitors to the site and a similar practice has been noted at Ballyvourney Church, Co. Cork in relation to another small carving that is similarly located immediately above a pointed window.

The later medieval period Whereas the earliest sheela-na-gigs appear on churches, in the later middle ages the igures began to appear on tower houses that were the residences of powerful native Irish lords or Gaelicized Anglo-Norman aristocrats. The change in emphasis 78

Figure 8: Plaster cast of the Rattoo sheela-na-gig in the National Museum of Ireland (© National Museum of Ireland). may have arisen as a consequence of the cultural assimilation of the Anglo-Normans by the Irish. The period from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century was a time of resurgence by the native Irish when effective English control was reduced to a small area around Dublin called the Pale. Outside this area the Anglo-Normans turned to Irish ways, using Irish laws and speaking Gaelic. During the later medieval period the sheela-na-gig image, which represented lust originally, was expropriated and became symbolic of the land, which in Gaelic tradition was personiied as a female to whom the lord was wedded. This was a very powerful concept that survived the defeat of the Gaelic system in the sixteenth century to continue as a literary motif in the Gaelic poetry of the eighteenth century and later.

Irish Sheela-na-gigs: the Kerry Connection - Eamonn P. Kelly

Figure 9: Sheela-na-gig rebuilt into a modern tomb, Abbeydorney, Co. Kerry. It was probably attached originally to the twelfth century Cistercian abbey (© National Museum of Ireland).

Figure 10: Sheela-na-gig located above a window of the medieval parish church at Kilsarkan East, Co. Kerry (© National Museum of Ireland). 79

Irish Sheela-na-gigs: the Kerry Connection - Eamonn P. Kelly A sheela-na-gig was found in the ruins of Carne Castle, Co. Westmeath, which was a sixteenth century tower house of the O'Melaghlin family whose ancestors were kings of Meath and High-Kings of Ireland. A sheela-na-gig is also found beside a window at Bunratty Castle, Co. Clare. Erected about 1460AD, Bunratty Castle was a dwelling place of the O'Briens, Earls of Thomond, until the early eighteenth century. Ballyportry Castle, Co. Clare, an O’Brien tower-house dating to the late ifteenth or early sixteenth centuries also has a sheela-na-gig, while Clenagh Castle, Co. Clare; a late sixteenth century fourstory tower house built by the McMahons of Clonderlaw has an example carved on a quoin stone. In addition to the important Gaelic families referred to above, families of Anglo-Norman ancestry also took to placing sheela-na-gigs on their residences. (Examples are also known on fortiied town walls at Fethard and Thurles, both in Co. Tipperary). Built by the Eustace family in the thirteenth century, and with later additions, Blackhall Castle, Co. Kildare has a sheela-na-gig placed by a doorway. At Edmondstown, Co. Louth a newly reported sheela-na-gig was found at a ruined tower house that also produced a marriage stone bearing the initials RT EP - probably referring to Richard Taafe and Elizabeth Plunkett. A sheela-na-gig referred to earlier was dredged up from the bed of the river Cashen at Lixnaw in 1952. Two pottery vessels, known as Bellarmine jars, were found in the river at the same place and, if the assumption is correct that the dumping of the jars is somehow connected with the discarding of the sheelana-gig, this would suggest that the sheela-na-gig was thrown in the river during the period from the mid sixteenth century to the mid eighteenth century, when such vessels were in use. The ind place of the objects was about one hundred yards from a building known as “the Old Court”, a sixteenth to seventeenth century residence of the Earls of Lixnaw, located a little to the north of the destroyed castle built in 1320AD by Baron Lixnaw. The igure (Figure 1), which is now displayed in Kerry County Museum, is carved in high relief and measures 29.5cm x 17.25cm. The legs are splayed and the arms pass behind the thighs and both hands grip the pudenda. Although it has an outsized head, the jug-ears that are present on the other Co. Kerry sheela-na-gigs are absent from the Lixnaw carving. The Lixnaw igure also has noticeable breasts - unlike the other Kerry carvings.

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Conclusions At a local level, the Kerry sheela-na-gigs fall into the same pattern as do sheela-na-gigs nationally. All four Kerry examples are located in the northern part of the county that came under Anglo-Norman domination, while the image is absent from the Gaelic controlled south of the county. Two examples (Rattoo and Abbeydorney) appear to be associated with foundations built by continental monastic orders (Augustinians and Cistercians) while another example – Kilsarkan East – was erected on a parish church. The Lixnaw sheela-na-gig may be the latest of the group and it is probably associated with a castle or fortiied house of the Gaelicized Fitzmaurice family. Today, most contemporary popular interest in the carvings tends to lay stress on the reproductive function of female sexuality, viewing the igures in a positive light. However, interpretation of the igures in historical terms is clearly a complex matter, as their signiicance and function appears to have changed across space and time. While academics continue to debate the meaning and signiicance of the igures, sheela-na-gigs continue to be powerful images that can generate strong passions and even public controversy, as well as acting as a source of inspiration for contemporary artists and writers.

Irish Sheela-na-gigs: the Kerry Connection - Eamonn P. Kelly

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY Andersen, J. 1977. The Witch on the Wall: Medieval Erotic Sculptures in the British Isles. Rosenkilde and Bagger, Copenhagen; George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London. Cannon, G. Ireland’s Sheela na Gigs. www.irelands-sheelanagigs. org/archive Freitag, B. 2004. Sheela-na-gigs: Unravelling an Enigma. Routledge, London. Guest, E.M. 1936. `Irish Sheela-na-Gigs in 1935.’ Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 66, 107-129. Jerman, J. 1981. `The Sheela-na-gig carvings of the British Isles: Suggestions for a Re-classiication, and other notes.' County Louth Archaeological and Historical Journal XX no.1, 10 – 24. Kelly, E.P. 1996. Sheela-na-Gigs: Origins and Functions. Country House, Dublin. Kelly, E.P. 2006. ‘Irish Sheela-na-gigs and Related Figures with Reference to the Collections of the National Museum of Ireland.’ In N. McDonald (ed.) Medieval Obscenities. York Medieval Press, York, pp. 124-137. Kenny, N. 2008. ‘The Irish Sheela-Na-Gig – Once Scorned But Now Revived and Celebrated.’ In B. Dolan, A. Mc Quillan, E. O’Keefe & K. Rice (eds), Association of Young Irish Archaeologists Proceedings of Conference 2007, University College Dublin. AYIA, Dublin, pp. 11-30. McMahon, J. & Roberts, J. 2001. The Sheela-na-gigs of Ireland and Britain: The Divine Hag of the Christian Celts – An Illustrated Guide. Mercier Press, Cork. Murray, M. 1934. ‘Female fertility igures.’ Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 64, 93-100. Weir, A. & Jerman, J. 1986. Images of Lust: Sexual Carvings on Medieval Churches. B.T. Batsford Ltd., London.

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The Lislaughtin Cross - Raghnall Ó Floinn

The Lislaughtin Cross RAGHNALL Ó FLOINN The Lislaughtin Cross was found in March, 1871 on the lands of Mr John Jeffcott in the course of ploughing reclaimed boggy land at Ballymacasy, which lies immediately south east of the town of Ballylongford, Co. Kerry and immediately south of Lislaughtin townland. It has been variously known as the Ballylongford or Ballymacasy Cross after the location where it was found. It is here called the Lislaughtin Cross, so named after the Franciscan friary for which, it is argued below, it was undoubtedly made at the end of the ifteenth century. The cross was probably intact when buried, but was broken up in the course of its discovery. It was recovered in fragments and despite efforts to ind all the pieces some were never found. The pieces were reassembled using silver solder and, although it is not known who did this work, it was most likely done by a local jeweller or goldsmith. Comparison of old photographs and drawings with more modern images of the cross indicate that at various times, small fragments of the openwork foliate border of the cross had become detached and were re-attached (not always in the correct location). The cross came to the notice of the Adare-based antiquarian and local historian George J. Hewson in 1874 while on a visit to Ballybunnion. He obtained a photograph of the cross which had been taken by a Mr Collins, photographer, of Tralee and he published an account of it some years later in 1881, which was illustrated with a number of engravings (Figure 1). It was eventually acquired by the Royal Irish Academy in 1889 and has ever since been regarded as one of the great masterpieces of Irish late medieval metalwork and has been on display continuously since its acquisition (Figure 2). The cross was included in the exhibition Treasures of Early Irish Art, 1500 BC to 1500 AD which toured the United States of America between 1977 and 1979 and again as part of Treasures of Ireland: Irish Art 3000B.C - 1500 A.D. which travelled to several venues in Europe between 1982 and 1984. It is at present on display in the National Museum’s permanent exhibition Medieval Ireland 1150-1550 AD. 82

Description The cross is a composite piece made up of separate pieces in cast and gilt silver, its individual elements attached using a combination of soldering and riveting (Figure 3). It is composed of four main elements: the cross proper, below which is a collar, a knop and a hollow socket. The arms are separate castings which it into sockets attached to a central quatrefoil and are secured in place with a series of rivets. Soldered strips of twisted gilt silver wires divide the arms into three registers. The edges of the cross are outlined with alternating large and small sprays of foliage which resemble the acanthus leaves of Classical art. There are openwork quatrefoils at the ends of the cross arms, each of which encloses a representation of an evangelist with prominent wings, shown in proile, and standing on a crescent-shaped scroll. These igures were cast separately and soldered in place. To the left is the lion, representing St Mark, at the top, the eagle, symbol of St John and the right arm contains the calf, emblem of St Luke. All face towards the igure of Christ. The cross was originally much taller and it is clear that elements of the original are missing. This is evident from the squat proportions of the cross - the shaft is too short in comparison with the span of the cross arms - and the fact that the plant ornament at the lower right side of the shaft is too close to the upper edge of the collar below. The only explanation for this is that part of the bottom of the cross shaft and the quatrefoil bearing the angel (symbol of the fourth evangelist, St Matthew) was not found when the fragments of the cross were recovered and the shaft was, therefore, awkwardly soldered to the collar below. The quatrefoil at the centre of the cross, which is now empty, did not, therefore, contain the missing evangelist symbol, as commonly supposed, but rather may have contained a halo or nimbus, emphasising Christ’s sanctity. Given that the base of the cross shaft is missing, there is a possibility that it may also have been provided with a pair of sockets for detachable branches containing igures of the mourning Virgin and St John to create a Calvary scene such

The Lislaughtin Cross - Raghnall Ó Floinn

Figure 1: Engraving of the Lislaughtin Cross published in 1881. This is the earliest known image of the object (Reproduced by permission of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland ©). 83

The Lislaughtin Cross - Raghnall Ó Floinn

Figure 2: The Lislaughtin Cross as displayed in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, c. 1890 (© National Museum of Ireland) as which is found on other elaborate processional crosses of the period (Figure 8). The stylised igure of Christ was cast separately and attached to the cross with three nails - one in the palm of each hand and one at the crossed feet (Figure 4). The arms of the igure are stretched in an open ‘v’ shape above the head, which leans forward to the left. The crown of thorns is shown as a thick, twisted rope and the igure is clad in a loin-cloth, the legs extended and bent at the knees. Christ’s suffering is emphasised: His eyes are closed and the emaciated body is indicated by a prominent ribcage and the wound in His right side is clearly visible, as are the droplets of blood around the nails through His hands.

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While the back of the cross is plain, the front is richly ornamented, carrying a lengthy inscription in Latin, the words highlighted against a hatched background interspersed with engraved animals, birds, interlace and foliage (Figure 5). A fox (or wolf), a rabbit (or hare) and a bird are shown on the right arm. On the upper arm a bird with curved bill pecking its breast can be identiied as a pelican. The inscription is in Gothic script and is oddly arranged, beginning on the left arm and reads from top to bottom. It then switches to the right arm and is read from bottom to top and inishes on the upper arm. The inscription has been variously read in the past, but the most probable reading is:

The Lislaughtin Cross - Raghnall Ó Floinn

Figure 3: Front of cross (Photography Bryan Rutledge, © National Museum of Ireland). 85

The Lislaughtin Cross - Raghnall Ó Floinn

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Figure 4: Figure of Christ. Note the wound shown on the right breast (Photography Bryan Rutledge, © National Museum of Ireland).

The Lislaughtin Cross - Raghnall Ó Floinn

Figure 5: Drawing of the inscription on the cross. Foliage, interlace and animals punctuate the Latin inscription (Reproduced by permission of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland ©).

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The Lislaughtin Cross - Raghnall Ó Floinn CORNELIVS FILIVS JOHANN / IS Y CONCHYR / SVE NACONIS CAPI / TANIVS ET AVLINA / FILIA MILITIS ME / FIERI FECERVT / PER MANV / VILLIALMI CORNELI / MO XXIO CCCCC / ANNO DI This may be translated as: ‘Cornelius son of John O’Connor captain of his nation and Avelina daughter of the knight had me made at the hand of William Cornel in the year of Our Lord 1479.’ Below the cross is an eight-sided lared plinth or collar with a series of cast human igures with a raised crest above. The crest is poorly cast in places so that the detail is not always clear, but each side bears a half-length igure of a crowned and winged angel holding a heart. Below are a series of eight identical igures, each consisting of a standing igure dressed in a friar’s habit with tonsured head, holding a short cross in the left hand, with the right hand raised in blessing. The collar is ixed to a twisted knop set with eight projecting lozenge-shaped cells containing sheets of silver engraved with foliate patterns of rosettes and leaves, which are inlaid with a dark material known as niello. Some of the plant designs are very similar to those on the cross arms and suggest they were made by the same craftsman. The knop is, in turn, set on a tapering circular socket with vertical serrated ribs. This would originally have been set into a long metal shaft to enable it to be carried in procession.

Inscription and History The Latin inscription enables us to date the cross and also to identify by whom it was made. There has been some uncertainty in the past as to how the date should be interpreted and it has been read, depending on how one reads the Roman numerals, as either 1479 or 1521. The fact that the number 21 (XXI) occurs before the number 500 (CCCCC) suggests that the former is to be subtracted from the latter (rather than added) to give the date 1479. On the inscription Cornelius (the Latin form of the Irish name Conchobhar or Connor), son of John O’Connor, is described as ‘captain of his nation’, 88

a term that was commonly used in later medieval Ireland to indicate the head of a particular branch of a noble family: in this case the O’Connor lords of north Kerry. In 1470 the donor’s father, John O’Connor, lord of Kerry, founded a friary for the Franciscans at Lislaughtin at the mouth of the Ballyline river, less than 1km north of Ballymacasy (Figure 6). As was the tradition at the time, he also selected a burial place for himself at the friary and it is possible that one of the two carved tomb niches on the north side of the nave was made for him (Figure 7). In May 1477 Pope Sixtus IV commissioned the clergy of the diocese of Ardfert to licence the foundation that John O’Connor had built. The friary was located at the heart of O’Connor’s territory, lying only 2 km from the family seat at Carrigafoyle on the other side of the estuary and became the burial place of the O’Connors. By 1617 or 1618, according to an account by the Franciscan friar Donatus Mooney, the friary was unoccupied and its situation was described as ‘solitary and surrounded by woods’. The surviving remains consist of the church with south transept with a cloister and domestic buildings to the north. The long church contains two tomb niches in the north wall as well as elaborately carved sedilia (a series of seats for the use of the clergy) on the south side of the choir (Figure 7). The annals record the death of an unnamed O’Connor Kerry and his wife in the year 1485. This must have been the founder John O’Connor and his wife, Margaret Nagle, as Avelina Fitzgerald did not die until some 40 years later. But how can we explain the fact that John’s son, Cornelius, described himself as ‘captain of his nation’ on the cross’s inscription in 1479? The explanation is that John must have relinquished his de facto title as lord of Kerry in favour of his son and retired (possibly with his wife) to the Franciscan friary as a lay member of the Franciscan Third Order, a version of the Franciscan rule adapted to secular life. It was common practice for lay founders of mendicant houses to take the habit in later life. The same happened in Connacht in 1469 when Richard de Burgo resigned the lordship of Mac William Uachtar in favour of his son Thomas. At the same time, he founded the Dominican friary of Burrishoole, Co. Mayo and took the habit of the order. He died in the friary in 1473. As John O’Connor’s son and successor, it is natural that Cornelius would continue his father’s patronage of Lislaughtin and the cross may have been commissioned

The Lislaughtin Cross - Raghnall Ó Floinn

Figure 6: Lislaughtin friary. (Photography Griffin Murray)

Figure 7: Carved tombs at Lislaughtin friary. (Photography Griffin Murray) 89

The Lislaughtin Cross - Raghnall Ó Floinn as a gift by the son in honour of his father, perhaps on the occasion of the consecration of the friary’s church soon after formal papal permission was granted in 1477. The 1470s were also signiicant in terms of the history of the Franciscan Order. Sixtus IV (born Francesco della Rovere) reigned as pope between 1471 and 1484 and, signiicantly, was himself a Franciscan. He was a great patron of the arts; he founded the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican (which is named after him) and his collection of classical sculptures formed the nucleus of the Capitoline Museum in Rome. Most signiicant of all was the fact that he oversaw the 250th anniversary celebrations marking of the death of St Francis and of his canonization in 1476 and 1478 respectively and it is in the context of such anniversary celebrations that the foundation of the friary and the commissioning of the Lislaughtin cross should be seen. Cornelius was in turn succeeded by his son, Connor who had assumed the title O’Connor Kerry by 1524. The inscription also includes the name of Cornelius’s wife, Avelina (a Latin form of the Irish name Eibhlín - Evelyn in modern English) who is described as ‘daughter of the knight’. This refers to the Fitzgerald knights of Kerry and Avelina was the daughter of Thomas Fitzgerald, known as the Knight of the Glen (or Knight of Glynn). It would have been normal practice at this time for persons of high birth to marry someone of equally noble status thereby sealing an alliance between two powerful families: in this case the great north Kerry families of the O’Connors and the Fitzgeralds. Avelina was obviously a woman of some consequence as her death is recorded in 1524 and she is described as ‘a good, charitable and humane woman’. It was not unusual for husbands and their wives to jointly commission works of art for their local churches. The names of Philip O’Kennedy, king of Ormond, and his wife Aine appear on the dedicatory inscription on the Shrine of the Stowe Missal made in the 1370s to enshrine a relic associated with St Ruadhán of Lorrha, Co. Tipperary, while the Shrine of St Moling was commissioned in 1403 by Art mac Murrough, king of Leinster, and his wife Elizabeth. Closer in date is the gilt silver De Burgo - O’Malley chalice made in 1494, probably for the Dominican friary of Burrishoole, Co. Mayo. Like the cross, the chalice was commissioned by a nobleman and his wife Thomas de Burgo and Grainne O’Malley. Thomas was, like Cornelius O’Connor, the son of the founder.

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Figure 8: Processional cross, candlestick and bell found at Sheephouse, Co. Meath. These were probably made for the nearby Cistercian monastery of Mellifont (© National Museum of Ireland). It is not known how the cross ended up being deposited in boggy ground. Three of the foundation’s community, Daniel Hanrichan, Maurice O’Scanlan and Philip O’Shee were martyred in front of the High Altar in 1580, the site was probably abandoned soon afterwards and the cross may have been buried for safekeeping at Ballymacasy nearby. In the same way, a collection of altar ornaments which included a processional cross, an altar bell and candlestick were found in a quarry at Sheephouse, near Oldbridge, Co. Meath which was located just over three kilometres from the Cistercian abbey at Mellifont, Co. Louth and it is plausibly argued that the objects originally belonged to that foundation (Figure 8).

The Lislaughtin Cross - Raghnall Ó Floinn

Figure 9: Detail of collar showing figure of StFrancis. Note the winged angel holding a heart above (Photography Bryan Rutledge, © National Museum of Ireland).

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The Lislaughtin Cross - Raghnall Ó Floinn

Cross form

The Lislaughtin Cross is the inest example of a group of around 40 late medieval processional crosses from Britain and Ireland. They are all remarkably similar in form and in their decoration. Typically, such crosses have loriated border and expanded terminals bearing symbols of the evangelists and the body is divided into three registers. Decoration is limited to enamelling and niello and the cross is usually itted to a knop and socket into which the shaft of the carrying staff was itted. All these features are shared by the Irish cross and it is likely, therefore, that it is based on an imported English prototype. The Lislaughtin cross is exceptional, however, in being the only example of the entire group which is of silver - the others are all of gilt brass or bronze. It is also by far the most elaborately decorated and its lengthy inscription is unique. The quality of workmanship on the cross is of the highest quality and must have been produced in the workshop of a master goldsmith in an Irish town. In a tradition which extends back to the early medieval period, the inscription on the cross includes the name of the craftsman, William Cornel. The name is recorded (as Wylliam Cornel) in the medieval accounts of the parish of St Werburgh’s in Dublin as the name of a family of Dublin spur-makers in the late ifteenth century. Spurs and other pieces of armour at this period could be made of iron, bronze or even silver. It is possible, then, that the maker William Cornel was a member of this family and the cross may well have been made in Dublin. On the other hand, the stylised nature of the igure of Christ and the interlace patterns which punctuate the inscription on the arms of the cross argue for a more local origin and in that light it may have been made closer to home, perhaps in Limerick. A Limerick origin is also possible for the magniicent Limerick Mitre and Crozier made for the bishop of Limerick Connor O’Dea by the goldsmith Thomas O’Carryd in 1418. Alternatively, it

is possible that the O’Connors or Fitzgeralds had their own master craftsmen and that William Cornel was one of these in the same way that Matthew Ó Maelruanaidh, whose death is recorded in 1479, was the master goldsmith of the Maguires of Fermanagh.

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Figure 10: Image of St Francis, Ennis friary, Co. Clare. Note the drops of blood surrounding the wound in his hand and the five drops of blood around the saint’s heart. (Photography Malgorzata Krasnodebska-DAughton)

Iconography The cross is heavily imbued with symbolism associated with the Passion of Christ, a devotion that was particularly popular in Ireland at the time of its manufacture, especially among the Observant Franciscans, and such symbolism would have been understood by those who viewed the cross in procession. The loriated outline of the cross is an allusion to the tradition that the cross on which Christ was cruciied was the Tree of Life: this motif was popular in Franciscan writings of the late

The Lislaughtin Cross - Raghnall Ó Floinn

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Figure 11: Left arm of cross showing a fox (partly obscured by the arm of the Christ figure) and, at the end of the arm, figures of a bird and a rabbit (Photography Bryan Rutledge, © National Museum of Ireland).

The Lislaughtin Cross - Raghnall Ó Floinn

Figure 12: Procession of the relics of a saint. At the head of the group are deacons carrying lighted candles, holy water and a processional cross. medieval period with the wide circulation of the religious tract The Meditations on the Life of Christ and is commonly found on their chalices. The side wound of the suffering Christ is prominently shown and the igure is surrounded and adored by winged igures of the Evangelists. Their form and position are taken from the vision by the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel who described four winged animals as follows: ‘there was the face of a man, and a face of a lion on the right side of all the four; and the face of an ox, on the left side of all the four; and the face of an eagle over all the four.’ Matthew was depicted as an angel as his Gospel began with the human ancestry of Christ. Mark is shown as the desert-living lion - his Gospel begins with John the Baptist ‘a voice crying in the wilderness’. The sacriicial ox symbolises St Luke whose Gospel begins with the story of Zachary the priest making a sacriice in the temple. John the Evangelist is depicted as an eagle as the opening words of his Gospel carry the reader to heaven like a soaring eagle. The image of the pelican vulning (wounding) itself is an allusion to Christ’s self-sacriice on the cross and to His resurrection. According to medieval legend, the pelican, in attempting to revive its young whom it has killed, pierces its own breast and the blood from its wounds brings them to life after three days. The position of this image on the upper arm of the cross is consistent with that found in the same position 94

on Continental processional crosses of the period. The pelican is often paired on medieval crosses with a igure of the lion as the lion breathed on its dead cubs, restoring them to life. The drops of blood falling from the pelican’s breast mirror those shown lowing from Christ’s side. The cross incorporates some speciic Franciscan iconography. The igures on the collar below the cross are clearly dressed as Franciscan friars (Figure 9). Each wears the triple-knotted belt which symbolises the three orders of the Franciscans: the First (the Friars Minor), representing male friars; the Second Order is that of the Poor Clares (women) and the Third Order representing the secular (individual) and regular (communities) Franciscans. Each igure is identical, holding a cross in the left hand, with the right hand raised in blessing. They resemble carved images of St Francis found in other Franciscan houses in Ireland at Askeaton, Co. Limerick and Ennis, Co. Clare (Figure 10). The representations are so similar that it is clear that the igures are not simply those of Franciscan friars, but are rather to be interpreted as representing the image of the founder of the Order, St Francis. In the case of the image of Francis from Ennis, the radial arrangement of the drops of blood on his raised hand is paralleled by a similar arrangement on the hands of the Christ igure on the cross (Figure 4).

The Lislaughtin Cross - Raghnall Ó Floinn Above the igure of St Francis, the presence of angels holding the heart (Latin cor) (Figure 9) may be an allusion to the name of the man who commissioned the cross, Cornelius O’Connor or, perhaps, that of the craftsman William Cornel. There is, however, a much closer relationship with Franciscan piety. An angel or seraph appeared to St Francis when he received the stigmata (the physical imprint of the wounds of Christ at the Passion) and the heart is a representation of one of the Five Wounds of Christ and is commonly seen on Franciscan iconography. On the carving of St Francis at Ennis, the Five Wounds are represented by ive drops of blood surrounding his heart (Figure 10). Both seraph and heart are, therefore, appropriate to the Cruciixion and, indeed, emphasise the link between Christ’s suffering and that experienced by St Francis. The symbolism of the animals (fox, rabbit and bird) on the arms of the cross is less certain (Figure 11). It has been suggested that they represent pairings of vices, the fox and the woodpecker-like bird, with virtues, represented by the pelican and the rabbit/hare. It may well be, however, that these also represent Franciscan spirituality and may relate to speciic episodes in the Life of St Francis. The images of the bird and the rabbit may be allusions to the episodes in the Life of St Francis by Thomas of Celano in which Francis preaches to the birds and frees a hare from a trap. Similarly, the image of the fox may well be an attempt at representing the wolf of Gubbio tamed by the saint, as recorded in the Deeds of Blessed Francis and His Companions.

Use These crosses were used in procession, not only at the celebration of Mass on Sundays, but also on feast days and for other special events, such as: Easter, Corpus Christi (the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ) and Candlemas (the feast of the Presentation of the Lord) (Figure 12). A particular form of communal procession designed to emphasise the unity of the parish and its parishioners were those which took place at Rogationtide. These were prescribed days for prayer and fasting which took place particularly in summer, on the 25th of April and on the three days before the Ascension. On these Rogation Days clergy and people went in procession around the parish boundaries, with bells and banners while singing and praying: the primary purpose being to beg for a

fruitful harvest, raise alms, ensure peace between neighbours and reinforce the boundaries of the parish. The hollow socket allows for the cross to be mounted on a shaft of wood or metal so that it could be raised up and seen by the faithful. A contemporary copper-alloy processional cross-staff survives in Cloyne cathedral, Co. Cork. In the particular context of Lislaughtin, the cross would have been used mainly for the great celebration of Easter. The majority of altar- and processional crosses would have been of wood or of bronze. Two loriated processional crosses are associated with Franciscan friaries at Multyfarnham, Co. Westmeath and Kilkenny, while a cruciix igure found in 1851 in digging a grave at Kilcrea friary may well have come from a cross of similar date. Historical sources suggest that the Lislaughtin Cross was not exceptional and that other friaries were given altar crosses of precious metals by wealthy patrons. The Franciscan friar Donatus Mooney, writing of his travels through Ireland in the years 1617 and 1618, describes how he had seen a silver processional cross from the friary of Adare, Co. Limerick, which was then in the custody of Fr Thomas Geraldine in Cork. He also mentions that among the possessions of the friars of Youghal, Co. Cork, which had been taken to Dromana castle, Co. Waterford for safe-keeping, were chalices, ornaments, relics and the friary’s ‘great cross of gold which was purchased for the friary by Lord James Mac Muiris’. The donor must have been one of the Fitzgerald earls of Desmond, most probably James itz Maurice, 14th Earl who died in 1540 and was buried in Youghal. Mooney gives a more detailed description of the great rood at Kilcrea friary, Co. Cork which the English attempted to destroy in 1584. It was described as ‘a beautiful work of art, having on each arm of the cross an exquisite medallion wrought in gold and silver, representing one of the evangelists, and was of great value on account of the precious metal it contained, as well as of the skill of the artist’. While this cross served a different purpose, its design and use of precious metals recalls that of the Lislaughtin Cross. The cross is thus a unique survival of Irish pre-Reformation church furnishing, made all the more exceptional in its use of noble metal and the fact that it can be associated with a speciic time, place and historical set of circumstances. Its use in procession, both within and outside the friary at Lislaughtin, must have been an impressive sight, raised high for all to see, its polished gilt silver surface glinting in the sunlight or relected candle light. 95

The Lislaughtin Cross - Raghnall Ó Floinn

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY Hewson, G.J. 1881. ‘On a processional cross, of the ifteenth century, found near Ballylongford, Co. Kerry.’Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 15 (1879-82), 511-21. Buckley, J.J. 1937. ‘The “Ballylongford” cruciix (note).’ Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 67,117-8. Hourihane, C. 2000. ‘ ‘Holye crossys’: a catalogue of processional, altar, pendant and cruciix igures for late medieval Ireland.’ Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 100C, 1-85. Hourihane, C. 2003. Gothic art in Ireland 1169-1550. London and New Haven, 103-6.

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