Early Christian Edifices.— Of the earliest Christian stone edifices in Ireland, Gallerus re mains; and the Skelhgs, where the very cliffs are worked into the scheme of architecture, preserve both church and cell almost perfect. From the 7th, 8th and 9th centuries there are numerous examples of oratories, some with stone roofs. Such churches can still be seen at Aran and Inismurray, on the islands of Lough Derg, Lough Ri, and in many other places. When larger churches were built the earlier structure was sometimes used as a chancel, as at Inis-na-ghoill in Lough Corrib, at Glendalough, at Inis-cleraun in Lough Ri, at Clonmacnois, at Iniscaltra and elsewhere. From the early Middle Ages onward we find the most elaborate carvings on door and arch and window, equal in skill to that found in book and metalwork. This same style of Irish architecture is likewise found in Scotland and England where it was introduced by the Irish missionaries who evangelized both countries as in the early churches at Monkwearmouth, Hexham, Bradford-on-Avon, and elsewhere. Venerable also are the remains of the great monastic universities and academies so cele brated in history. Of some of the oldest of them, such as Armagh, Bangor and Clonfert, hardly a vestige of the ancient edifices remains. Of others such as Clonmacnois, Kells, Mon asterboice, Saint Enda of Aran, and Glenda lough of the Seven Churches, the ruins are im portant, including round towers, decorated high crosses, oratories, beehive cells, stone churches, Ogham stones and a great number of other slabs and headstones bearing inscriptions written in Irish minuscules both in the Irish and Latin tongues. Ogham stones and pillar stones bear ing inscriptions in Irish and in Latin carved in medieval Irish minuscules and semi-uncials are likewise found in Scotland, Wales and Corn wall, and in England as far east as Hampshire, wherever indeed the Irish Gael established a military colony. To the Irish series must be added the important ruins on Iona, which dur ing the 1,000 years of its existence remained an Irish establishment. Iona is a Scottish isle, but Scotland's historic character as an Irish province is not generally realized. The original Scoti were the Irish; the original Scotia was Ireland, modern Scotland, called Caledonia by the Romans, acquiring the name of Scotia Minor or Lesser Ireland, after the Irish had conquered and colonized it. Wherever the words Scotia, Scotus and Scoti occur in Latin literature from the third to the 13th century— though the alternative term, Hibernia, was also employed, as in the phrase Hibernia Scoti Ireland and the Irish are meant. Ignorance of this elementary fact has led to numerous his torical errors. As time went on great abbeys arose all over Ireland, adorned with all the splendor that the Romanesque art and wealth of the period could bestow. Cashel, the most famous of them all and once a stronghold of the Irish kings, is one of the architectural wonders of the world. Rising up suddenly into sight on a high rock crowned with buildings, the simile of a Christian Acropolis at once suggests itself. As numerous as the abbeys are the stone Irish castles, Milesian and Nor man in origin, built often on the foundations of ancient duns.
Towers and Crosses.— Of the celebrated round towers about 70 now remain, but the number formerly ran into hundreds, forming a vast architectural colonnade, that had no counterpart anywhere else in the world. The round towers, the later examples of which are richly decorated, are all on ecclesiastical sites and range in height from 60 to 150 feet, and from 13 to 20 feet in external diameter at the base. The tops are conical. The interior is divided into six or seven stories each lighted by a window with the exception of the top story, which has usually four windows. Inti mately associated with the round towers are the sculptured crosses, of which the High Cross of Monasterboice is the chief. • About 55 of these stone crosses still remain in various parts of Ireland, their dates extending from the 9th to the 13th century. All are orna mented with the Opus Hibernicum and contain groups of figures representing biblical scenes. No two crosses are alike, and what the towers have in perfection of masonry and construction the crosses have in artistic carving and sym bolical design.
Metal Work.— The pagan Irish, as has been indicated, practised from time immemorial the art of working in bronze, silver, gold and enamel. From the beginning their art was ex quisitely simple and refined in its decorative designs. These designs, as in their multitudi nous gold ornaments, were based very largely upon the use of spiral or curving lines, arranged with the finest artistic skill, and showing in their delicate modulations of swelling or taper ing forms a perfect mastery of the art of draw ing. In Christian times a new motive came in. Greater richness and complexity of effect was aimed at and was attained by the use of what has been called ((interlaced) designs, in which the lines of the design are interwoven with each other in patterns of great intricacy. The Cross of Cong, the Shrine of Saint Patrick's Bell, the Lismore Crozier and the Shrine of Saint Lactan's Arm, all dating from early in the 12th century, are unsurpassed examples of the interlaced pattern, which were so supremely developed in the hands of the Irish craftsmen as to be called Opus Hibernicum. These pat terns were probably first used in illuminated manuscripts and they lend themselves admir ably to treatment in color. An example of the combination of the exquisite spiral wreath and curves of the Pagan period and the later inter laced designs is seen in the wonderful Ardagh Chalice. The Tara Brooch and the Ardagh Chalice are perhaps the most beautiful speci mens of ancient metal work to be found in the world. Both specimens are considered as be
longing to the 8th century and their extraordi nary delicacy and beauty have to be seen to be appreciated. But they by no means stand alone. The National Museum in Dublin has numerous other striking examples of metal work. They supply us with a wonderful and intimate pic ture of the fashion and habits of the higher classes in Irish society in the period when Ire land was at the pinnacle of its wealth, dignity and learning. Among examples of Irish metal work on the Continent the 8th century Tassilo Shahie at Kremsmunster is perhaps the most interesting.
Ancient Manuscripts.— The chief evidences of its highly developed culture in that period are to be found in the ancient Irish manuscripts which have been more studied and written about than any other reliclues of Irish antiquity. This was a field in which Irishmen long led the world. In the Middle Ages the richest libraries in Europe were in Ireland, and the richest libra ries on the Continent were organized by Irish men on Irish foundations. Thus Bobbio, founded by Columbanus in 612 A.D., long pos sessed the richest library in Italy. The nucleus of its library was formed by books brought out of Ireland by Irish monks and by treatises writ ten by Columbanus and his fellow countrymen, and by the large gift of books made by the later Dungal. Similarly Saint Gall, possessing the richest library in northern Europe, was an establishment founded by Gall or Ceallach, an other Irishman; its library was enriched by the donations of Marcus, and the transcriptions of the school of Abbot Grimoald, both• Irishmen. Saint Gall, Bobbio, and Rebais and Corbie, two other Irish foundations, proved the great treas ure houses of the ancient classics. When we consider the systematic destruction of Irish books that has gone on for centuries, and when we remember in the face of that fact that Irish manuscripts, whether in Latin or in Irish, re main still among the oldest and most valuable in the world, we acquire considerable respect for the ability of the Irish scribe. The illumi nated manuscripts of scripture, by reason of their obvious beauty and singularity, are the best known. The Book of Durrow is the old est specimen of Irish illumination, and the Book of Kells, some of the initial letters of which cover a whole page, is the most magnifi cent. The Book of Armagh, the Gospels of MacRegol, the Gospels of Macburnan, the Book of Lindisfarne, this last executed in England, the Liber Hymnorum, the Garland of Howth, the Stowe Missal and the Gospels of Saint Chad are some of the other miracles of Irish mini ature painting. The illuminated gospels and liturgical books handed down as heirlooms in the English Church are all of them true prod ucts of Irish art, having been transcribed and ornamented on Irish foundations, such as Lin disfarne, Whitby, Melrose and Malmesbury by Irish scribes and their English pupils. Still more valuable on many grounds are the other classes of Irish manuscripts, the chief merits of which lie in their literary features. The Leabhar na eh'Uidhrea or "Book of the Dun is the oldest big book in the Irish lan guage. This book among other things has an important version of the Tain Bo, poems by Flannof Monasterboice, and many pieces of historical romance referring to the Tuatha de Danaan. The Book of Bally mote is another immense vellum compila tion, whose chief interest lies in the pedigrees of the great Milesian families with the various minor clans and the families branch ing off from them. The Leabhar Breac or Speckled Book; the Great Book of Leacan; the Domnach Airgid, a book shrine of great beauty and antiquity, containing a fragment of the four gospels written in Latin which Petrie considered must have belonged to Saint Pat rick himself ; the Cathach or Book of the Battle, a highly ornamented book shrine enclosing a fragment of the Psalms in Latin, the heirloom of the Clan Conail, handed down from Saint Columbkille, who wrote it with his own hand; the Book of Leinster, containing poems,. geneal ogies and calendars of the heroic period; the Annals of the Four Masters, compiled from older manuscripts; the Yellow Book of Lecan, a collection of ancient historical pieces, secular and ecclesiastical, in prose and verse; these are all preserved in library collections in Ireland and some of them are the thief sources and authorities for old Irish literature. Apart from these there is an enormous number of other Irish books, on vellum paper, existing not only in Ireland, but in numerous continental libraries, most of them in Irish, many in Latin, a few in Greek, of which language Irishmen alone in western Europe possessed a knowledge in the early medieval period, many of them crowded with valuable scholia, which have been made the basis of a critical literature all its own. Irish archeology, Irish history and Irish literature are still comparatively unfilled fields, yielding to intelligent labor virgin fruits that can no longer be looked for in the well- beaten classical grounds. Outside of the Greeks and Romans the Irish alone of Western peoples have handed down to the modern world a literary represen tation of the life of their ancestors during the period of antiquity. The results of Irish archeological research may thus be compared, corrected and supplemented by the lessons of Irish literature, and in so far as this has been done the discoveries have been remarkable. As a result of such comparative study Prof. William Ridgeway has thrown new light on both Greek and Roman history, showing the Celt as a leading figure in the early stages of both, it has already become a truism among international students of history that a knowl edge of Irish history, literature and archeology is necessary to a proper study of the early his tory of Europe. _ _