272 Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



of the cathedral and its inscription, as he is with respect to that of the cross 

 itself. The doorway is not, as he states, a work of the thirteenth century, but un- 

 questionably of the fifteenth, as the style of its architecture, and the character of 

 the letters in the inscription, will at once prove to any person acquainted with 

 the antiquities of this period. The cathedral church of Clonmacnoise was, 

 indeed, re-edified in the thirteenth, or, more probably, in the beginning of the 

 fourteenth century, but not by Dean Odo, the builder of the north doorway, 

 which is in a different style, but by Tomultach Mac Dermott, chief of Moy- 

 hurg, who, as the Registry of Clonmacnoise states, " hath repaired or built the 

 great church, upon his own costs, and this was for the cemetery of the Clan- 

 maolruany." This Tomultach Mac Dermott, according to the Irish annals, died 

 in the year 1336. 



But, though the church was thus re-edified, we still find in the sand-stone 

 capitals of its great western doorway remains of a more ancient church, as their 

 style and material, which are different from those of every other ornamented 

 portion of the building, sufficiently show ; and that such capitals belonged to 

 the doorway of the original church, I can see no solid reason to doubt. The 

 general form of this doorway, as re-edified in the pointed style of the fourteenth 

 century, may be seen in a plate of it given in Harris's edition of Ware's Bishops; 

 the character of its capitals will appear in the annexed illustration, copied 

 from a sketch made by myself, previously to its recent destruction. 



In the still perfect doorway of another church at Clonmacnoise we have a 

 specimen, which, though but of little interest, as exhibiting ornament, is worthy 



