Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 317 



In this beautiful abbey, as well as in other monastic edifices of the same 

 age, we find indications of that new and more harmonious style of ecclesiastical 

 architecture denominated Gothic, which became fully developed in France and 

 the British Islands early in the thirteenth century; and amongst the finest 

 specimens of this latter style erected in Ireland, many owed their origin to the 

 Irish princes. But the struggle for dominion which thenceforth ensued between 

 the Irish and the Anglo-Norman chieftains, and which was for so many ages 

 continued in Ireland, was fatal to the progress of the arts ; and, with very few 

 exceptions, the architecture, sculpture, and, as exhibited in our illuminated 

 manuscripts, painting, not merely ceased to keep pace in improvement with 

 these arts in England and other Christian countries, but, as their monuments 

 prove, gradually declined almost to utter extinction. 



But I have extended this section to a tedious length, and though the 

 evidences which I would wish to adduce are still far from being exhausted, I 

 must endeavour to bring it to a close. I trust, however, that enough has been 

 adduced to prove the two following conclusions : first, that churches of stone 

 and lime cement, in a rude style of architecture, were erected commonly in 

 Ireland from a period coeval with the introduction of Christianity ; and se- 

 condly, that ornamented churches in the Romanesque, or, as it is usually called 

 in England, the Norman style, were not uncommon anterior to the English in- 

 vasion. I have also, with what success the reader must determine, endeavoured 

 to sustain the conviction which has forced itself on my own mind, that much 

 of this ornamental architecture remaining in Ireland, is of an age anterior to the 

 Norman Conquest of England, and probably, in some instances, even to the 

 Danish irruptions in Ireland. . I am aware, indeed, that in this latter opinion I 

 run every risk of being considered rash or visionary, and therefore I trust I 

 shall be excused if, in my desire to sustain it, I avail myself in this place of ano- 

 ther and more decided example of such early ornamental architecture, sketched 

 for me by my friend Mr. Burton, since the preceding sheets have been printed 

 off"; as, though this example is but a rude one, its antiquity will hardly, as I 

 conceive, be doubted. This example is found in the doorway of the church of 

 St. Dairbhile, which is situated in the wild and hitherto little explored district 

 within the Mullet, in the barony of Erris and Co. Mayo. The church is, in form, 

 a simple oblong, measuring internally forty feet in length, and sixteen in breadth, 



