Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 13 



there were such towers in Ireland at times much earlier than those of the Danes. Lynch was ar- 

 guing against what Giraldus has about Round towers being seen in Lough Neagh, and strove to 

 refute him by showing, that there were not any such towers in Ireland at the very ancient period 

 alluded to by Giraldus, whereas, he says, they are reported to owe their origin to the Danes, who, 

 according to Giraldus himself, did not come to Ireland until A. D. 838." 



" The reader will now be able to form an opinion of Ledwich's logic and critical rules, and to 

 judge of his fidelity in referring to authorities." Ecc. Hist. vol. iv. pp. 405, 406. 



To these remarks it would be useless to add any thing further; and, taking 

 it for granted that the reader is now satisfied that the hypothesis of the Danish 

 origin of the Towers is one which has not been proved, or even made to appear 

 probable, I will proceed without further delay to the next section. 



SECTION II. 

 THEORY OF THE PHOENICIAN, OR EASTERN ORIGIN, OF THE ROUND TOWERS. 



THE romantic notion of ascribing the origin of the Round Towers of Ireland 

 to the Phoenicians, Persians, or Indo-Scythians, originated in the fanciful brain 

 of General Vallancey, an antiquary who, in his generous but mistaken zeal in 

 support of the claims to ancient civilization of the Irish, has done much to 

 involve our ancient history and antiquities in obscurity, and bring them into 

 contempt with the learned. In support of this conjecture, however, General 

 Vallancey has adduced scarcely a shadow of authority, but in place of it has 

 amused his readers partly with descriptions of the fire-towers of the Persians 

 which only prove that these were not like the Round Towers of Ireland and 

 partly with a collection of etymological distortions of the most obvious meanings 

 of Irish words, intended to prove that the Round Towers received their local 

 names from being temples of the sacred fire ! 



As these supposed proofs rest altogether on the uses to which it has been 

 assumed that the Towers were applied, it will be most expedient, and prevent 

 repetition, to present them to the reader in the following Section, in which I have 

 to treat of that subject ; and as the more ingenious arguments of Doctors Lanigan 

 and O'Conor, Miss Beaufort, Mr. D' Alton, Mr. O'Brien, Mr. Moore, and, recently, 

 Mr. Windele of Cork, in support of this hypothesis, are of nearly a similar kind, 

 they shall be considered in the same place. 



